Unshaken
by mystica88
Summary: With a sudden Earthquake that rocks both Soul Society and the human world, events start to point to a new threat to not just these worlds, but all of them. No slash. Some IshiHime eventually.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Ok, so this is going to be quite long. I am already at 100k and not done yet. I've been working on it ever since January, so I hope I can keep ahead of my updates.

I came across this little method of disclaiming in Kimsa Ki-Lurria's "Ivory Deity," and really like it so I thought I'd give it a try… with her permission of course.

Disclaimer:

I step out into center. "Let's start this show off with everyone's favorite Quincy delivering our disclaimer for the masses. Ishida Uryu, please step forward."

Ishida steps out from the wings and joins me, "Thank you Mystica-san," he says as he adjusts his glasses. "Let me start by saying that it is a good thing that you have decided to start disclaiming your stories. I know in the past you haven't been very good about doing this and that could lead to some serious legal trouble for you later."

I clear my throat again and say, "Um, thanks Ishida, but if you could just…"

"For those of you out there that don't already know, it is important for Fanfiction writers to put a disclaimer to their stories so that no one can later accuse them of copyright infringement. This can be a serious crime, one that the owners of Bleach would have every right to…"

"Ishida, I'm sure that our readers out there are aware of the whole disclaiming thing… how about you just give the disclaimer so we can move along with the story?"

He adjusts glasses again, "All right, if you don't want to make sure your point is made clearly then… Mystica does not own Bleach… is that all right?"

"Yes, thank you very much Ishida. We'll be looking forward to seeing you in the story later."

Curtin rises…

Chapter 1

Rukia sat in her brother's garden, watching as the cherry blossoms were caught by the gentle breeze and were lifted from their lofty branches. The petals danced in the air, filling the garden with a pink-white hue before settling on the ground in a soft, floral scented carpet. The Shinigami sighed as she thought how such a beautiful sight could remind her so much of her adoptive brother.

It was more than just how the cherry blossoms looked so much like his Zanpakuto's released form… the sight reminded Rukia of his very personality. Byakuya was not an easy man for most people to get along with. At first glance, he was a stand offish, prideful individual who would rather avoid social interactions. But Rukia had come to know the gentler side of her brother.

Just like the cherry tree in winter, hidden deep inside of it was the potential for such beautiful and gentle blossoms. It just took the right person to bring these attributes out. Rukia was one to believe that it had been her now deceased sister that had truly shown Byakuya how to love and it was her presence that would remind him of the man that he could be. Rukia sighed again, glad to know that she was able to at least keep her sister's memory alive for her brother.

"Welcome home, Rukia," her brother's voice said quietly behind her.

She glanced over her shoulder and smiled at him. "I'm glad I made it home in time for the cherry blossoms, Nii-sama," she said and then turned back to watch the blossoms continue to drift on the breeze.

For a long while, they stayed like that, Rukia sitting on the edge of the deck over looking the garden, and Byakuya standing behind her. It was a peaceful moment that the two shared that was about to be one of Soul Society's last for sometime to come.

As Rukia sat there, she slowly began to notice a strange vibration coming from the floor beneath her. She had turned to look questioningly at her brother, wondering if he had noticed it, when he suddenly reached down and grabbed her, carrying her out into the middle of the garden. As she looked back over his shoulder, she watched the deck supports quake and then a few crumble, causing it to fall to the ground with the covered over hang crashing down on the boards where she had been sitting.

Byakuya set her down and turned to watch as the whole side of his house was crumbling due to the violent shaking of the ground. They struggled to stay on their feet as they looked around. Just over the edge of the wall that surrounded the garden, they could see other buildings in Soul Society crumbling and disappearing from sight.

"What is going on?" Rukia muttered.

Byakuya remained silent as he watched the destruction continue until the quaking finally came to a stop. Rukia looked to him, wondering what they should do, when he suddenly disappeared. She gasped, but realized that he must have left to find out what was going on and to report what he had seen. As a captain, her Nii-sama was about to have a lot of responsibility to take care of now that another emergency had come to Soul Society.

With a sigh, Rukia left too. She made her way back to her own squad's barracks to see if she had any orders regarding this new development. She had just returned from the real world too, hoping to get to spend some time with her brother. _I guess that will just have to wait_, she thought.

XXX

It was a very long and difficult day after that. Rukia had been assigned to work with a group from the fourth squad in searching for survivors of those that had been inside buildings that had collapsed. It was long and difficult work shifting through the debris. She had often had to call upon her own meager healing abilities to keep someone that she had found alive long enough for someone of the fourth squad to take over.

When all was said and done, there had been several hundred injured in the catastrophe, but only a handful of them did not survive. Considering the amount of damage that had been done, it was something of a miracle that more had not been killed.

Still, Soul Society was in a state of emergency and everyone was on edge. It didn't seem that anyone knew what it was that had caused the disaster, nor did anyone know for sure if it was an isolated incident or if it was a sign of more to come. Rukia, now coming to accept these emergencies as par for the course, was of the opinion that they had not seen the last of this particular problem.

She was in a state of exhaustion by the time she made it back to her barracks to give her report on her day's endeavors. She was surprised to find Captain Ukitake there himself to take her report. She would have expected her captain to be kept up in a captain's meeting, unable to return to the barracks already.

"Captain," she said, bowing before him. "Kuchiki Rukia reporting…"

Ukitake waved her off saying, "No need to be so formal, Rukia."

"Captain…?" she asked, wondering if she had missed something.

"I'm not here to take your report. I have been sent to ask a favor of you."

"A favor? What could I possibly do for you?"

"Well, since you seem to be the most used to travel to the real world, I thought that you might be able to check to see what has been happening there. There is some concern that whatever it was that affected Soul Society today, may also have had consequences in the real world as well."

Rukia nodded and asked, "Hasn't there been any reports from the real world yet? Surely if something had happened, those that are already stationed there would have reported."

Ukitake shook his head and replied, "We have been unable to communicate with anyone from the real world. Whatever happened today not only affected Soul Society's physical appearance, but also the spiritual make up as well. As it stands, no communications have been able to make it in or out of Soul Society and it was only about an hour ago that the twelfth squad was finally able to open a gate to the real world. Their report is that, though it is open for the moment, they are not sure how long it will remain so, or if they will be able to open it again afterward."

Rukia's eyes became large as she took in this new information. "So you want me to leave as soon as possible, I would assume."

He nodded, "Yes, that is the general idea. You'll be going with tenth squad Captain Hitsugaya and sixth squad vice-captain Abarai."

Rukia nodded, she had suspected as much. In matters of the real world, it was usually herself and Renji that were asked to go. If it was important enough to send someone of captain level, Captain Hitsugaya was the one most familiar with such trips. In dealing with situations in the real world, it helped to have those who were familiar with the way things worked there to be the ones sent.

"Yes sir," she said. "I will report to the gate at once."

"One more thing, Rukia," Ukitake said. "Please inform our substitute Shinigami, Kurosaki Ichigo, of our current situation. As much as I hate to think about this, we have to assume that this not an isolated incident and we may be forced to call upon his services once again before all of this is over."

Rukia nodded as she stood up. "I will do so, Captain."

"Also," Ukitake said as he reached into his sleeve and brought out a sealed envelope. "Would you be so kind as to deliver this to Urahara-san? It's nothing important, just inquiring into a personal matter," he told her.

She nodded as she took the envelope and tucked it inside her kimono. "Yes sir."

"Take care, Rukia," Ukitake told her, informally dismissing her.

Rukia hurried off to meet up with Hitsugaya and Renji at the gate. She had barely been back to Soul Society from her last trip to the real world and now she may be stuck there for quite a while. _I wonder when I'll get to come home again_? She thought longingly after the peaceful moments that she had shared with her brother earlier that day.

XXX

Inoue sat beside her open window in her apartment, looking out at the beautiful day outside. _Such lovely weather, and it's nice that it came on a Saturday so everyone can enjoy it_, she thought to herself. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on the windowsill with her head propped up on her hands. She was staring at the birds that had perched on the phone lines outside her place as her mind drifted to other things.

_I wonder what everyone is doing to enjoy the weather today?_ She thought. _Surly all of them have found something to do with such a wonderful day._ She sighed as she tried to think of what all of her friends would probably be up to.

_Tatsuki-san is probably at the dojo, practicing for her upcoming match. Kurosaki-kun is no doubt spending time with his sisters. He doesn't get to do that very much these days and they always love when he is able to come outside with them._ She felt the corners of her mouth pull upward when she thought about Ichigo playing soccer with his younger sisters. She knew that he and Karin would always let their other sister, Yuzu, win whenever they played. Yuzu was the kind that never caught on that they actually were playing poorly in order to let her win, but all that mattered to all of them was that they had fun together.

That was something that Inoue missed most about having her big brother around. He had also let her win at games. It just seemed to be the responsibility of a big brother to let their younger sister win from time to time.

_Sado-kun is probably out with his older friends. I think he said something about playing guitar at an outdoor gig with them today_. Inoue knew that Chad played, but she was yet to actually see him. Somehow she got the feeling that he preferred that few of his high-school friends actually knew about his being in a band. It really seemed to be something he kept to himself, like so many other things in his life. She was slightly surprised that he had even mentioned that he was playing to her. He probably just wanted to let her know in case she had thought to do something with him today. He was thoughtful that way…

_Ishida-kun is probably the only other one beside myself spending the day in solitude… but he probably prefers it that way._ Ishida was a solitary individual and he, no doubt, was enjoying having some down time to himself on such a lovely day.

Inoue sighed unconsciously again as she continued to watch the chirping birds outside. _Such a lovely day…_ but her thoughts somehow sounded melancholy, even to her.

Suddenly she gave a gasped as the birds that were perched outside all took wing at the same time. It seemed as if something had suddenly startled them, but there hadn't been any noises or anything else that Inoue had discerned that would have spooked them. She was wondering what could have scared them all off like that when she felt the first rumblings in the floor beneath her.

"Earthquake," she gasped, knowing exactly what those tiny vibrations meant. She quickly ran for the door of her second floor apartment. She needed to hurry up and get to the ground outside before the quake became any worse.

By the time she reached her door, her place was swaying with the shaking of the ground below. She had to grip the railing on the outside steps to keep herself upright as she made her way to the ground. As it was, she lost her grip and pitched forward a couple of steps from the bottom. She fell to her knees on the ground, scraping one of them, but not receiving anything more serious than that.

She struggled to stand as the ground continued to lurch below her. She managed to make it a few more feet away from her building before she gave up her struggle and sat down on the ground. She turned around and looked back at her apartment, wondering if it would make it through this quake. She thought briefly about her brother's shrine inside, but knew that he certainly would not like her to risk her safety to rescue that.

As the ground continued to shake, Inoue wondered what had caused this. Living in Japan, this certainly wasn't the first quake that she had been through. She knew that her country was a source for much seismic activity, but something about this one felt a little off.

There was a strange feeling in the air that stirred unknown misgivings inside of her. Something about this particular quake felt unnatural.

As the quake subsided, she let out a sigh of relief to find that her place had not toppled over. She knew, though, that going back inside now would be too dangerous. There could be damage done to the structure that was not visible and an aftershock could come at any time. No, she was stuck outside for the time being.

Slowly she stood up and scanned the neighborhood around her. Other people who had fled outside were now beginning to stand up and brush themselves off as well. None of the buildings in the immediate area seemed to have suffered too much damage, but that also could be deceiving.

"I should go and make sure that everyone is all right," she said as she turned and faced the direction of Ichigo's house. She paused a moment when she realized that his was the first place that she thought to check. But when she thought about it, he probably would be the last of their group that would need help. His father was a doctor after all so he would be able to deal with any injury that might have happened.

Inoue closed her eyes then and concentrated on the feeling of her friends. She could feel Ichigo first, as his was the most familiar and strongest spark of energy in town. His reiatsu pattern was just as strong and steady as ever. He was in no danger just then. Chad and Ishida were also just as bright and steady as was to be expected.

It was then that she had to concentrate a little bit more to sense Tatsuki. Her friend also had a higher spiritual energy than most, but it wasn't as powerful as the others, so it took a little more to be able to sense it. When she finally felt the little flicker of Tatsuki, she gasped, realizing that there was something wrong.

Just going by the feel of her reiatsu, Inoue couldn't tell what the problem was, but she was sure that Tatsuki was in trouble of some kind. She quickly turned and took off running in the direction that she sensed her friend.

XXX

Ichigo had, in fact, been playing soccer with his sisters in the field closest to their house. He had just kicked the ball to Yuzu and Karin purposefully missed a block, allowing Yuzu to score. He and Karin shared a smile at her excited exclamation over having just scored another point.

Suddenly the ground below them began to shake. "Karin, Yuzu!" Ichigo cried as he quickly ran over to the girls. He grabbed them both and held on to them as the shaking intensified. Yuzu began to cry while Karin remained perfectly calm.

Ichigo held onto his sisters until the quake finally subsided, leaving all three of them a bit wobbly, but none the worse for wear. "Where'd that come from?" Karin said as Ichigo released her from his grip. He continued to hold onto Yuzu as she was quite content to cling to him.

"I don't know," He said. "But we should get back to the house to make sure pop is ok."

He wrapped his arms around Yuzu and lifted her up as he stood. Yuzu was still sniffling and clinging tightly to her big brother, not wanting to let him go. "Come on, Karin," he said as he began to walk quickly towards home, carrying his other little sister.

Karin followed close on his heels, silently glad that she wasn't as emotional as her twin sister. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to have to depend so much on someone else. Karin had learned at a very young age that depending on someone else would only make it that much worse when that someone wasn't there anymore. And from the very little that she knew about the extra things that her big brother did, she knew it was a very real possibility that he was not going to always be there for them.

XXX

Chad had stopped playing just moments before the quake had hit. His band was performing on an outdoor stage at the east end of Karakura Community Park. A few moments before the ground began to shake, Chad had sensed something. It was too vague for him to know what it was, but there had been a definite shift in the spiritual atmosphere.

As he stopped, his other band members turned and looked at him. "Chad…" one of them said. "Snap out of it man."

But Chad ignored his friends for a moment as he slowly lowered his bass guitar and began to look around, trying to pinpoint what it was that he was sensing. When the ground first began to quake, no one felt it right away because of the loud music. It wasn't until the shaking was quite serious that the other members of the band stopped playing, finally realizing that they were all in danger.

The heavy stage lights were swinging wildly in the make shift rafters above them. All of them began to stumble off of the stage. Just then, a girder gave way above them and began to fall to the front of the stage.

The lead guitarist looked up and saw the beam heading right for him. In a panic, all he could do was throw his arms over his head, praying that it might somehow miss him. He felt something hard hit him, but it certainly wasn't the steel girder that he had been expecting.

With another blow, he was knocked to his knees a split second later. Slowly he opened his eyes to find that someone had wrapped their arms around him and was bent over top of him. He blinked and realized that it was Chad.

Quickly he shifted out of his friend's grip and saw that Chad had been the one that took the impact of the girder instead of him. "Chad!" he exclaimed as he saw his friend slowly lift the heavy metal off of his back and stand up. "Chad, man, are you all right?" he exclaimed.

Chad nodded to him but didn't say anything as he looked around. Lights had crashed onto the stage as well, but luckily no one had been under those. All of the other band members had made it off the stage and no one in the crowd seemed to be hit by the falling debris.

"Chad, are you sure you're all right, man. That thing must way a ton," the guitarist said as he eyed the beam now lying on the stage.

"I'm fine," Chad said and then turned and walked off the stage. "I need to check on something," he said without looking back.

His friend whom he had just saved simply stood there shaking his head.

XXX

Ishida had had far more warning than the others that something was very wrong. He had woken up that morning sensing something was off, but not really knowing what it could be. It was just an indescribable feeling in the air.

He had found himself in the late morning, early afternoon, being drawn to somewhere. He could feel a great power building up and he was curious to find out what it could be. It was mid afternoon by the time that he had wandered into the Karakura Community Park. He knew that there was a small festival on the east side of the park, but he felt himself being drawn to the center.

_It's a good thing that the festival is off at the edge_, Ishida thought. _Whatever is building here feels rather ominous_. There was a feeling in the air of mounting tension in the spiritual pressure all around him. It was almost as if the very spirit particles were being wound like a rubber band, tighter and tighter. It felt as if pretty soon that rubber band was either going to be released and sent unwinding, or it would snap with the tension. Either case did not bode well for the external world.

Ishida had just reached the center of the park, a large open field surrounded by a bank of trees, when the quake hit. A second before the ground began to tremble, he felt the spirit pressure snap around him. The moment that the tension was suddenly released, he fell to the ground, feeling sick and disoriented. The ground below him then began to quiver and turn soft. He gasped as he realized that the very dirt was becoming like a thick viscous liquid under him, sucking in his legs and hands where he was kneeling.

Taking a breath and trying to reorient himself, he pushed up from the ground, prying his hands free for the dirt. His legs were a bit more mired in the ground. He summoned his Quincy bow and fired a shot into the earth below him. It blasted up a spray of dirt from around his feet, allowing him enough space to pull free of the sinking ground.

Using his Hirenkyaku, he quickly leapt into the air and put some distance between himself and the area of unstable ground. Looking back from his higher vantage point, he saw that a circle about half the size of the field had formed of this soft dirt that was sinking downward. By the time the quake finished, there was a perfect circle of ground that had sunk about a meter lower than the surrounding area.

Ishida looked the phenomenon over, wondering what in the world could have caused something like that. The only thing that he knew for sure was that it was not a normal earthquake. Something in the spiritual plane had caused this and that meant that he and his friends were about to acquire some new problem.

Chad had coming running to the scene a moment later. He found Ishida kneeling at the edge of the crater, examining the disturbed soil. "Ishida…" Chad said as he walked up behind the Quincy.

"Sado-san, you sensed it too?"

Chad nodded, "Only as it happened though."

Ishida stood up and brushed off his hands before pushing his glasses up with two fingers. "I've been feeling something all day. Whatever caused this has been building since this morning."

"Then it wasn't a natural earthquake…" Chad said as a statement.

Ishida shook his head and turned to look at Chad. "No, I would say that something new has come to town. We should go find Kurosaki and Inoue-san. Maybe they sensed something else that could help us figure this out."

Chad nodded and followed after Ishida as the Quincy led them out of the park.

XXX

A set of bright blue eyes watched as the two boys ran from the park. Hovering in the sky above the circle in the ground was the tiniest of tears in the fabric of the world. These blue eyes that matched the color of the sky, narrowed in on the friends, wondering how it was that two humans could have sensed what he had been doing.

"Interesting…" a soft, slick voice sighed. "Very interesting…" the eyes disappeared as the tear sealed itself closed.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you to those that have reviewed and favorited so far. I hope that this continues to stay interesting. And please feel free to point out mistakes that I might make so that I can go back and correct them. Thanks!

And now for the disclaimer:

"Alright, well, after last week's rather long winded disclaimer, how about we have someone who is still trying to get over his stage fright so that he won't be taking any more time than necessary? Hanataro, could you please come out here?"

A scared squeak is heard can be heard from offstage.

"Um, Hanataro? Are you all right?"

His voice breaks as he calls from offstage, "I…I don't think I can d…do this…"

After smiling at the audience nervously I say, "just a moment please…" before walking offstage. "Hanataro, I thought we went through this. You said that you wanted to get over that little stage fright thing you had for miss Kimsa.

" I…I do, Miss Mystica… B…but… there's just s…so m…many people…"

"Hanataro, you're going out there," I say before shoving him out from the wings.

Hanataro stumbles on stage and stares blankly at the crowd. "ahhhh… I…I…"

Prompting from the wings I say, "Miss Mystica…"

"M…miss M…Myst…stica…"

"Doesn't own…"

"Doesn't o…own…" he gulps.

"Bleach"

"B…Bl…Blea…" But that's all he is able to get out before he falls into a dead faint.

Clearing my throat I step out and say, "Close enough. Good try, Hanataro. Now, on with the show!"

Chapter 2

The trip between Soul Society and the real world had been far more difficult than normal. Rukia, Renji, and Captain Hitsugaya had been forced to run single file through the distance between the gates as the sides were just barely wide enough to allow them to pass. As it was, when they reached the other side, Hitsugaya had been forced to call out his Shikai to use one of his ice dragons to force the exit further apart from the crack that they found it to be.

"What was that all about?" Renji asked as they jumped out into the real world.

Hitsugaya was eyeing the gate that was closing behind them as he said, "I have never seen anything like that before."

"I don't think we're going to be able to get back to Soul Society for a while," Rukia said.

Hitsugaya shook his head and then turned to face the other two. "We should head for Urahara's first. If something has been going on here, he would be the first to know."

Rukia nodded and added, "And that's where Ichigo and the others will probably go if something has gone wrong."

The three Shinigami turned and made for the former twelfth division captain, Urahara Kisuke.

XXX

Ichigo was relieved to find that their house didn't appear to be damaged. He sat his sister Yuzu down and walked into the house ahead of her, only to be ambushed by his father. "Ah-Ha!" his dad cried as he aimed a kick for Ichigo's stomach.

Ichigo easily knocked the kick away with his arm and then struck his father across the face with a right cross, knocking Isshin flat on his back. "Glad to see you're all right too, pop," Ichigo said as he walked past his father's prone body.

He strolled into the kitchen and opened the fridge, pulling out a can of soda. "Daddy!" Yuzu exclaimed as she followed her brother into the house and jumped onto her dad. Isshin gasped as she fell into his arms, but didn't say anything as he got to his feet, holding Yuzu to his chest.

"You all right, dear?" he asked her.

She nodded as she hugged her arms around him and buried her face into his chest. Karin came walking in next. "And you, Karin?" he asked his other daughter.

"Fine," she said calmly. "Just got a little shaken was all."

"Ichi-nii held us…" Yuzu muttered.

"Yeah, I took care o' them," Ichigo said blandly as he cracked open the soda and took a large gulp. He brought the can down and wiped an arm across his lips before saying. "It didn't seem very big. Was there any major damage reported?"

Isshin shook his head, "I haven't heard that there was much damage. A few buildings towards the center of town were reported to have collapsed, and a lot of places are without power. But so far no one around here has had any issues. I was considering heading out there to see if any of them need my help since I don't seem to be needed at the clinic right now."

Ichigo nodded, "Yeah, probably should do that."

Karin stood back, watching the men of her house discuss the happenings as if it had been just a normal, everyday earthquake. She was surprised that her brother didn't seem to think that there was something else behind this quake. She was sure that she had felt… felt something… off… about the whole thing. There had been a feeling lingering in the air that reminded her a little of the monsters that she had seen attacking her and her brother lately. But it wasn't quite the same… it was slightly different, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was.

"Anyway," Isshin said. "You might want to go and check on your friends. I'll take Yuzu and Karin with me."

Ichigo nodded and then finished off the rest of the can of soda before tossing the can in the recycling. He turned and headed for his room. He raised a hand in a backward wave as he said, "All right, see you guys later. Good luck."

Isshin then gathered his daughters and a bag of emergency medical supplies and headed out. Ichigo went into his room and snatched Kon up from his bed. "Ichigo!" Kon exclaimed. "What was all the shaking? Is everything all right?"

"Yeah, from what I can tell," he said to the mod soul. "But we're switching, I need to go find the others quickly and see how they are doing." Without any more preamble, he reached down into Kon's throat and pulled out the spirit pill. He popped the pill into his mouth and suddenly his Shinigami form was expelled from his body.

He turned around and looked at Kon who was now inside his body. "You stay here in case my family comes home. Dad might need some help with the girls if he has to bring some of the injured back here."

"Ah… right…" Kon said, not sure he really liked the idea of having to look after Ichigo's sisters. _At least Yuzu won't be trying to dress me up like a girl when I'm in Ichigo's body_, Kon thought to himself as he watched Ichigo leap out of the window and disappear from sight.

XXX

Inoue raced across town, following the faint flicker of Tatsuki's reiatsu. She felt the flicker dimming even as she ran, driving her to move even faster. "Hold on, Tatsuki-san," she muttered as she ran.

As she made it further into town, she saw that more buildings had been affected by the quake. Some simply had a few cracks running through the walls that hadn't been there before. But there were some that had partially caved in and even a few that had completely collapsed. It was fairly obvious that she was now closer to the epicenter of this particular quake.

Finally she arrived at a building that she knew was the dojo in which Tatsuki worked out. There was a crowd of people outside of it, all of them looking nervously about. Inoue ran up, seeing that a part of the building had indeed collapsed.

"Tatsuki-san!" she yelled as she put on another burst of speed for the damaged building. Suddenly a hand shot out and grabbed her around the arm, stopping her in her tracks.

"Hold on!" a gruff male voice called to her. "You can't go in there. It's too dangerous!"

"Tatsuki-san," she said to the man. "Where is Tatsuki-san?"

The man looked down at her with a sympathetic look. "She went back inside when she realized that one of the other students didn't make it out. The roof collapsed right after she entered again. We're waiting for the rescue crews to arrive to go in after her."

Inoue looked at the man with a stricken expression. "No…" she said quietly. "No, I have to help her!" she said, pulling her arm free from his grasp.

"Stop!" he yelled after her as she ran through the open door. "Hey! Come back!"

Inoue ignored him and plowed inside, calling out for her friend. "Tatsuki-san! Tatsuki-san!" A constant stream of dust was falling from the ceiling and Inoue could hear the creaking of wood above her. What was left of the roof was not going to last much longer. If another quake hit, she and Tatsuki would be buried in there.

"Tatsuki-san!" she cried desperately as she carefully picked her way through debris inside, searching for her friend. She heard a soft moan then from across the room. When she looked, she could just make out a figure in the dim light, partially buried under a pile of fallen timber.

"Tatsuki-san!" she cried again and hurried over there. When she got closer, she could see that the one that was moaning and now beginning to move was actually a young male student. He was pinned underneath another body though. As she knelt beside the mess, Inoue saw that it was an unconscious Tatsuki that was draped across the boy, protecting him from the roof that had fallen on top of her back.

"Tatsuki-san…" she said softly as she felt her eyes beginning to fill with tears. But now was not the time for that. She brushed the dampness away and studied the situation. The boy was still not entirely conscious yet so now would be the time to act.

There was a large amount of wood pinning the two of them down, but most of it didn't appear to be that heavy. The problem was that there was one main support beam resting on top of some of that wood that Inoue was not going to be able to shift herself.

Inoue touched the hairpins on the sides of her head and said softly, "Tsubaki," the spirited male petal from her hibiscus flower split from the others and shot out towards the beam. He plowed through it just above where it laid across Tatsuki, splitting the beam in half.

He returned to his place in the flower pins as the beam split apart, falling to either side of Tatsuki and the boy. Inoue quickly stood and began to shift the rest of the debris that still had them buried. She had just gotten them free when she heard someone else coming inside. She glanced up and saw the man that had tried to hold her back.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded of her.

She just shook her head and grabbed Tatsuki by the shoulders and pulled her off of the boy. "Could you please help the young man, sir," she said as she turned Tatsuki over to check her. She was relieved to find a pulse, but it seemed weak to her.

Inoue could hear the man grumbling about how reckless she was, but he bent over and lifted the young man up from the debris. As he was lifted, the boy opened his eyes and asked, "Arisawa? Where's Arisawa-san?"

"I have her," Inoue said, grabbing her friend as best she could onto her back.

The man carrying the injured boy looked back at her and gave her an unreadable look before nodding once. "Alright," he said. "Let's get out of here."

He began to lead them back to the exit when a loud creaking noise made them both stop and look up. A plume of dust falling from the ceiling was all the warning they had before the ceiling above them began to crumble. "Get out of here!" Inoue screamed at the man.

He glanced at her before breaking into a run and diving through the exit. Inoue, burdened with Tatsuki, didn't have the option to run. She crouched down on the ground, making herself and Tatsuki as small as she could. A split second before the planks and boards from the ceiling hit them, a bright yellow triangle shield appeared above the girls.

Inoue gasped as she was forced to put all her concentration into holding the shield under all of that debris. But it maintained, and protected both of the girls until the ceiling had finished falling in on them. As soon as Inoue was sure that it was safe again, she had the small fairy like beings that held the points of her shield shift upward, moving the wood and other debris away from them and allowing her to stand up in the clear area.

Just as she stood, still holding Tatsuki on her back, four men in rescuers uniforms came into view through the plumes of dust that had been kicked up from the collapse. They looked at her in surprise to see that she had not been injured when there clearly was a collapse all around her. "Hello," she called to them. "Could you please help my friend? She has been hurt."

The men seemed to snap out of their surprise when they realized that they had a job to do and quickly made their way over to the girls. One of them gently lifted Tatsuki off of Inoue's back and carried her out. Another asked Inoue if she needed help, but she waved the man off and said that she was fine.

Outside, Tatsuki was being placed on a stretcher as paramedics began to look her over. Inoue could see that the boy Tatsuki had been protecting was on another stretcher and was being loaded into an ambulance. The boy was sitting up now though and was quite awake. It appeared that he was going to be fine. It was Tatsuki that Inoue was concerned for.

"Tatsuki-san," she whispered as she watched the paramedics begin to roll the stretcher away towards another waiting ambulance.

"If you let them know you're with her, they should let you ride with them," the man that had helped her said from behind her shoulder.

She turned around and looked at him. He gave her a sympathetic and understanding look before reaching down and taking her hand. He led her over to one of the paramedics that was helping to load Tatsuki into the ambulance.

"Excuse," he said to the man. "This young lady is a friend of hers and would like to ride with you to the hospital."

"Of course," the man said as he climbed into the back and held out his hand to Inoue.

She hesitated only a moment before taking the hand and jumping up into the ambulance. As the doors were closing behind her, she glanced back at the man that had helped her and said softly to him, "Thank you."

The man smiled in response before turning around and walking away. Inoue often regretted not asking him his name. She would have liked to thank him better for having helped her out, but she never saw him again.

XXX

Ichigo didn't make it very far before he ran into Ishida and Chad. "You guys all right?" he asked them.

Chad nodded as Ishida adjusted his glasses and said, "We're fine. We were coming to find you."

"I'm fine," Ichigo said.

Ishida looked slightly annoyed with him as he said, "I knew that already. If you had been hurt I would have sensed something. We were checking to see if you noticed anything unusual during that quake?"

Ichigo looked confused as he said, "Unusual? Wasn't it just a regular Earthquake?"

Ishida sighed and Chad said, "No, something spiritual caused it."

"Something spiritual?" Ichigo asked. "Like what?"

"We're not sure," the Quincy said before explaining what it was that they had witnessed and sensed.

Ichigo grimaced even more than usual and said, "Now what's going on?"

"We should go see if Urahara…" Ishida began but then trailed off as he suddenly looked off to his right.

"What is it?" Ichigo asked.

"A gate has just opened and then closed. It would appear that a few from Soul Society have just arrived."

"Really? Who?" Ichigo asked, trying to see if he could sense anything as well. He was always a little envious of how well Ishida could sense these things.

Ishida looked slightly surprised before saying, "This must be something big… Kuchiki-san is with them, that's not surprising. But Abarai and Captain Hitsugaya have come as well."

"Toshiro?" Ichigo said. "Whatever is going on it was important enough to send a Captain?"

Chad nodded, having also sensed the Shinigami, and said, "Seems so."

"They're also heading for Urahara's." Ishida announced. "We should meet them there."

Ichigo and Chad nodded before they all took off in the direction of Urahara's shop.

XXX

The Shinigami arrived at Urahara's ahead of the other three and quickly filled in the former Shinigami captain on what was happening in Soul Society.

"Very interesting," Urahara said. They were all sitting around the circular table in the back of the shop. The shopkeeper pulled out his fan and began to wave it in front of his face. "And no one in Soul Society knows what has caused this?"

Hitsugaya shook his head, "No," he said. "The Captain-commander sent us to see if there had been any effects in the real world, but we don't know when we're going to be able to report back."

"Well, well," Urahara said as he hid the bottom half of his face behind his fan. "I may be able to help from this end in that matter. As for affects, Karakura town experienced an earthquake this afternoon; probably about the same time as your own problems occurred in Soul Society."

"You think it's connected?" Renji asked.

"I would be surprised if it wasn't," Urahara told him as he snapped the fan closed.

They were all silent a moment before Rukia suddenly gasped. "Oh, Urahara-san, Captain Ukitake requested that I give this to you. He said it was a personal matter." She reached into her kimono and pulled out the sealed envelope that her captain had given her and handed it to the shopkeeper.

He took it and broke the seal, quickly scanning the contents. Rukia watched Urahara carefully, wondering what the message was about. She couldn't be sure, but there seemed to be the briefest flash of surprise in the shopkeeper's eyes but his normal indifferent gaze quickly masked it.

"Interesting," he said as he lowered the letter and folded it back up.

"What is it?" Rukia asked.

Urahara placed the letter inside his jacket and waved his fan as he said, "Oh nothing. Just a personal request from the captain of something he would like me to look into. It has nothing to do with any of you."

Rukia narrowed her eyes at the ex-Shinigami a moment wondering what it was that he was covering up. Having once been a part of the second division troops, Urahara was quite good at keeping secrets. After all, the second division was the covert-ops squad. Rukia knew that she was probably never going to learn the contents of that letter unless Urahara deemed that she needed to. Even then he would only tell her exactly what she needed and not a letter more. She hid an internal sigh and returned her mind to the conversation that had started up again.

After some more discussion on what had happened in the real world, Ichigo, Ishida, and Chad showed up. There was some more discussion as they all shared their experiences with each other and compared notes. But by the end, none of them seemed to have any more idea of what was going on or what could have caused all of this destruction.

"Ichigo," Urahara said softly as their discussion wound down. "Where is Inoue-san?"

Ichigo gave a start and looked around the room. "I assumed she would have made it here by now," he said suddenly worried. He glanced at Ishida, hoping that the Quincy might have been able to tell something about Inoue.

"She's all right," he told the worried substitute Shinigami. "Though she did use her powers a while ago for some reason."

Ichigo stood up and was on his way out the door when Rukia called after him, "Wait, Ichigo…"

"No," Urahara said. "Let him go. There is nothing more that we can accomplish here. I have already sent Yoruichi into Soul Society to find out a few things for me. Until she returns, or until something else happens, there is little more that can be done."

"Sent…?" Rukia said puzzled. "But I thought…"

"That the gates are down?" Urahara said with a smile. "As I said before, I may be able to help in that area."

"Tch," Hitsugaya huffed. "And you mention that now…?"

"It didn't seem relevant before…" Urahara responded with the sound of a smile on his lips even though they were hidden behind his fan again.

Ichigo shook his head at the captain and former captain's exchange. He turned and left to start his search for Inoue. When he got outside, he realized that someone had followed him. "Ishida, if you…"

"You don't know where she is. I can help you find her faster," the Quincy interrupted him. Ichigo nodded and allowed Ishida to lead the way.

XXX

While riding in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, Inoue brought out her two healing fairies, but had them hover by her shoulder for a minute. She wanted to know if these paramedics could see them. From the apparent lack of notice that any of them gave the two little sprites, Inoue decided that they didn't have enough spiritual perception to realize that they were there.

With that determined, she sent the pair to work on healing Tatsuki's wounds. From what the paramedics had determined so far, Tatsuki probably had several internal injuries as well as a fair number of broken bones. The thing that they seemed to be most worried about was her spine. A lot of pressure had been placed on that delicate place of her body, and it was possible that some serious damage could have been done. Though they did assure Inoue that it was far too early to tell anything for certain.

She just nodded to them and directed her healing flowers to concentrate on Tatsuki's internal injuries. That way it wouldn't become obvious to the paramedics that something otherworldly was going on.

Broken bones, internal bleeding, damaged spine… they were all quite serious injuries and potentially life threatening. But now that Inoue understood the nature of her abilities, she wasn't worried that she wouldn't be able to heal all of that. If her power was in being able to reject reality and return something to its original state, then she was sure to be able to heal Tatsuki.

As the ambulance pulled into the hospital, Tatsuki cracked her eyes open. The paramedics all seemed fairly surprised that she had come to already. Tatsuki blinked up at the yellow glow that surrounded her before her eyes drifted over to the corner where Inoue was sitting.

"Orihime…?" she muttered.

Inoue smiled at her and then placed a finger over her lips to signal to Tatsuki to remain quiet about the healing field that she was creating.

Tatsuki gave a weak smile in return before closing her eyes again and drifted into an exhausted sleep rather than the injured state of unconsciousness in which she had been. Inoue allowed a slight sigh of relief as the paramedics began to wheel her out of the ambulance.

Confident that she had already healed the most serious of Tatsuki's injuries, she dismissed her healing field and allowed them to take Tatsuki away as they asked her to go to the waiting room. She didn't have to stay there very long before someone came and said that Tatsuki was awake again and didn't seem to have anything too serious.

The orderly told Inoue that Tatsuki had been taken to a recovery room already and that she was asking for her. Inoue thanked the man and then followed his instructions on how to get to her friend's room.

"Tatsuki-san?" she asked as she stepped into the doorway.

Tatsuki had a bandage wrapped around her head and another one running down her right arm. Other than that, she seemed fine sitting up in her bed against a stack of pillows. "Orihime," Tatsuki said. "Come in."

Inoue came inside and closed the door behind her. "I called your parents. They should be here soon," Inoue told her friend as she came over to stand beside her bed.

Tatsuki sighed, "Great… boy are they going to flip."

"They should know, Tatsuki-san. They are your parents after all…"

"Yeah, I know. I just hate to see them worry over nothing."

Inoue looked down at the floor at a loss for words. "But it hadn't been nothing, had it?" Tatsuki asked her quietly.

Inoue looked up at her and blinked, not sure what she should tell her friend.

"You don't need to tell me," Tatsuki said as she looked away and towards the open window. "I know that it was you that made sure I was all right. I could sense your presence even before I came to. Thank you, Orihime."

"It was nothing, Tatsuki-san," Inoue said in a quiet voice. "You would have done the same for me."

Tatsuki looked at her and smiled, "That's right. I would have."

It was then that Tatsuki's parents interrupted the girls. They flew in, fawning over their daughter, hurrying to assure themselves that their little girl wasn't seriously hurt. Inoue had begun to slink off when Tatsuki spoke up to her, "Orihime, please don't leave. I would like you to stay for a while."

Her parents were quick to agree to this, thanking Inoue for having came with Tatsuki and calling them when she got there. Inoue took herself off to a corner and watched the scene of doting parents and their injured daughter and felt herself give an internal sigh. This is what it was like to have a family, she thought.

It was some time later that the parents filed out to allow Tatsuki to get some rest. They had nearly forgotten that Inoue was even still in the room. After the door closed behind them, Tatsuki looked up at Inoue and beckoned her over to the chair beside her bed. "Please sit with me a while, Orihime… at least until I'm sleeping."

Inoue nodded and sat down in the chair. She watched as Tatsuki closed her eyes and very soon had drifted into a slumber. As soon as the girl was asleep, Inoue called out her healing powers again, and set them to work on finishing up the healing on her friend.

When they had finished, she dismissed them again, but was rather surprised when Shuno didn't immediately return to her hairpins. The little fairy flew a few times around Inoue's head as if looking for something and then came to hover in front of her. "Where's Ichigo?" the little creature asked.

Inoue was surprised at the question. It was not very often that her six hibiscus flowers actually talked to her and it seemed even stranger that one should be concerned over Ichigo. "He's… he's not here," she replied.

"I can see that," Shuno replied. "I just thought that after all that happened, he would have checked up on you by now."

Inoue looked at the fairy with a slightly bewildered expression before saying, "I'm sure he's busy… a lot of people probably needed his help after that quake…"

Shuno shrugged and said, "Oh well, I guess he had more important things to do…" with that the creature suddenly popped back into the hairpins where it resided when not otherwise called out.

Inoue sat there wondering what all that had been about. The only time that she had ever talked to her little helpers was when it concerned using their powers. To have just a conversation with one of them seemed very strange indeed. And what had it meant by going on about Kurosaki-kun?

Inoue stood up and looked over Tatsuki and found that her friend was still deeply asleep. She shook her head, dismissing the strange event, and then turned and quietly let herself out of the room. As she turned around from closing the door, she nearly walked right into Ichigo.

With a gasped she took a step back and looked up at him. "Inoue!" he exclaimed as he looked down at her. "Are you all right?"

"Ye…yes," she stammered. She caught sight of Ishida standing a short distance behind Ichigo.

"I told you she was fine," the Quincy said as he nudged his glasses with a finger and then looked away from the two of them.

"I was worried when Ishida said that you were in here," Ichigo explained. "Why are you in the hospital?"

"I came here with Tatsuki-san," she explained. "She was hurt in the quake…"

"Tatsuki!" Ichigo exclaimed and started to step around Inoue for the door that she had just come from.

Inoue put a hand out and stopped Ichigo as she said, "She's sleeping now, Kurosaki-kun. She's all right now though. There is no need to worry for her."

"That's why I sensed your powers," Ishida said as he came a little closer. "You were healing her."

Inoue nodded. "She had been hurt pretty bad when she went back into a collapsing building to get a young man that had been left behind. But I've completely healed her…" she looked up at Ichigo who had a hurt look on his face. "She's fine now, Kurosaki-kun… really."

He nodded once and then turned away from the door and walked away. "Thanks Inoue, Ishida… I should probably get home and check on my sisters. Yuzu was pretty upset today." He gave a backwards wave over his shoulder as he walked away from them.

Inoue sighed as she watched him walk away. She knew that he was feeling bad for not having been there to protect one of his friends… but he couldn't be there all the time for all of them. "He takes on too much…" Inoue heard Ishida mutter.

Inoue looked up at Ishida and blinked. She rarely heard Ishida voice his concerns over any one.

Ishida looked back at her and said, "There's something going on again, Inoue-san. Be careful and keep an eye on Arisawa." With that he turned and also walked away. Inoue stood there a moment, slightly confused about everything that had happened in the last few minutes.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Here we go… another installment! Thanks for the reviews so far (waves at Haddrell). Please, let me know what you think of it and if I am making mistakes and what not. Review really do help me to make improvements

And now for this week's disclaimer…

I walk out onstage and begin. "This week I think we will have someone that doesn't have any stage fright problems and can be quite quick and to the point. Mr. Urahara Kisuke, please step forward!"

Urahara walks out and raises a hand to peer out at the audience. "My, my, you have quite a crowd here."

I blush a little as I say, "oh, well, not really, but thank you."

"So, you wanted me to do something for you?"

"Well, uh, yes. If you could please disclaim my story, if it's not too much trouble…"

Urahara pulls out his fan and waves it as he says, "No trouble at all. Ahem, Mystica does not own Bleach."

"Wow, thank you Urahara-san. That was quite nice and to the point. If you wanted to ah, join me in the green room for this chapter, I would be happy to let you, ah, do some research on me." I give him a wink and walk off stage.

"Hmm…A human writer… I suppose I haven't had an opportunity to study one of those before…" he also exits the stage.

On that note, let the show begin!

Chapter 3

That evening, Rukia returned home with Ichigo. Urahara opened the gate and sent Captain Hitsugaya back to Soul Society to report what had happened in the real world while Renji remained at the shop. For now, they determined all they could do was wait and see what happened.

"Hey, Urahara, where's your mod soul trio?" Renji asked as he came out of the back now in his Gigai.

"Hmm?" Urahara said as he looked up from his tea. "Oh, I sent them over to Soul Society a few days ago. There were rumors that one of the Bount may have gotten away after all that mess a while ago."

Renji made a face as he said, "That's the last thing we need on top of all of this. A Bount turning up right now would be a pain."

Urahara shrugged and returned to sipping his tea.

Yoruichi hadn't returned yet and it seemed that Urahara was waiting for her report before he voiced any of his thoughts on the situation. He did tell them, though, that the disturbance between Soul Society and the real world was getting worse and that even he might not be able to open a gate again after a few days of this.

"What could possibly be causing such a problem in the Precipice World?" Ichigo asked Rukia as he flopped on his bed. "I thought that it was a pretty sturdy place."

"It normally is," she replied. "This disturbance is unlike anything I have ever seen or heard of before. It's as if powers that are immutable are being tamper with…"

Ichigo sighed as he lay back, pillowing his head on his arms. "I hate this waiting part…" he muttered.

"Nee-san…" Kon said as he hopped down from the foot of Ichigo's bed and walked over to her. "Would it be so bad if you got stuck here in the real world with us?" he leaped up to sit in Rukia's lap, but Rukia back handed him, sending him flying across the room.

"This isn't my home, Kon," she told him as he righted himself after having landed head down against the wall.

"But Nee-san…" Kon said pleadingly. "You wouldn't have to leave us again."

"Kon," Ichigo snapped. "Even if she wanted to stay here, cutting the real world off from Soul Society would be terrible! Just think if you, me, and Rukia were the only ones left here to protect the humans from the hollows!"

Kon started, not having thought of that factor. "Oh," he said lamely as he plopped down on the floor where he was with a slight squeak.

"You're right, Ichigo," Rukia said. "We have got to find out what is causing this!"

XXX

Inoue had gone home that night around dark. She had heard that her building was given the all clear to go back inside and she was quite tired after the day's excursions. As she got ready for bed, she returned to her chair beside the window that she had abandoned and looked out at the nearly full moon that was rising outside.

She allowed her senses to seek out each of her friends to assure herself that they were still all right. She was a little stunned to sense Renji at Urahara's shop and Rukia at Ichigo's. "Why didn't Kurosaki-kun or Ishida-kun tell me that they had returned to the real world?" Inoue asked out loud.

Suddenly Shuno, Lily, and Tsubaki all burst from her hairpins and hovered in front of her. "Guys…!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing..?"

"You called us," Shuno said to her and flew over to sit on her left shoulder.

"N…no," she said, wondering how she could have called them. Not only had she not called on them, but these three didn't even all work together.

"Your heart called us out," Lily said as she went and settled on Inoue's right shoulder.

"My heart?"

"We're part of you, Orihime," Shuno said. "So when you are confused about something, we want to help you figure it out."

"Confused? What am I confused about?" She was actually feeling quiet confused now by their presence, but she couldn't think what she could have been confused about before they had appeared.

"Ichigo, of course!" Shuno exclaimed, taking off and flying around Inoue's head once before hovering next to Tsubaki in front of her. "You're in love, Inoue. You need to tell him!"

Inoue gasped but didn't get a chance to say anything since Lily also took off and flew around her head saying, "You're only going to get hurt, girl. Best just forget about him." She joined the other two in hovering in front of Inoue's face. "He's clearly more interested in another."

"You should fight for him," Tsubaki told her sternly. "If you want something then you have to fight for it!"

"What!" Inoue gasped as she stood up, looking at her three helpers. "What is this?"

"You're feeling bad about Ichigo not having checked up on you today," Shuno said.

"You're feeling jealous that he was probably with Rukia instead," Lily piped up.

"You're wondering how to get Ichigo to notice you when Rukia is around," Tsubaki finished.

"N…no… that's not it at all… I just…" she was backing away slowly from the fairies, wondering what had gotten into them. It just wasn't like them to confront her like this.

Lily flew up to her and said, "You know that's what it was, don't you… It was Rukia that distracted Ichigo from you. It's her that he's interested in so you should save yourself the heartache and move on, Orihime."

"I…I know he cares for Kuchiki-san …" Inoue stuttered. "They are very close and I know I can't come between that…"

"You're weak," Tsubaki said as he swooped in towards her. "Take a stand, take out the competition, do something proactive to get what you want."

"But Kuchiki-san…"

"Don't worry about Rukia," Shuno said. "What matters is what you want and what Ichigo wants. You need to talk to him, find out what is really going on inside his heart."

"No…" Inoue said, feeling like she wanted to run. "Please, leave me alone. I don't want to do anything right now. I…I know I love Kurosaki-kun…but…but I can't…"

"You can't what?" all three of them asked simultaneously.

"Can't you trust Ichigo?" Shuno asked her.

"You can't trust Ichigo," Lily said.

"Trust him or not, but do something," Tsubaki snapped.

Inoue stared back at the fairies at a complete loss for words. Suddenly all three of them flew at her. She ducked, thinking that they were about to attack, but they followed her movement and popped back into place on the flowers at the side of her head.

She knelt down on the floor, holding herself and trying very hard not to cry. _Is that really what I'm thinking?_ She wondered to herself. _Am I really that upset about Kurosaki-kun that I've become jealous of Kuchiki-san? Should I just give up and move on, or should I tell him…_ but she didn't want to complete the thought.

She took a deep breath and tried to brush all of it off. It didn't matter whatever it was that was going on inside of her. Ishida had warned her that something big was happening again and she needed to be there for all of them. It didn't matter if she was in turmoil over her feelings for Ichigo… she had to push that aside to do what she could for all of her friends.

That decided, she went and got into bed thinking that that would be the end of her misgivings… The next week would prove that she was quite wrong.

XXX

For Ichigo and Rukia, the week went by quite slowly. It seemed that the disturbance in the area between the gates of Soul Society and the real world was also affecting the space between the real world and Hueco Mundo. Ichigo and Rukia had had nothing to occupy their time other than classes for that entire week.

Normally when Rukia was in the real world, it was because something was going on and that meant that they would be either buried in hollows, or taking care of something even worse. Both of them were going nearly stir crazy waiting for something to do.

Renji too was getting antsy. Especially since he had to do a bunch of chores around Urahara's shop, having been guilted into it with frequent reminders of how he was freeloading. He was ready for something to happen… anything at this point would be better than sitting around there.

Chad had been enjoying the quiet time. He had been worried that they were all about to be thrown into something again and was grateful for the reprieve, even if it was only to be short lived.

Ishida was also glad for the down time. He used his time to continue to train his Quincy techniques. He didn't want to be caught unprepared for whenever something did finally happen. He did notice, however, that Inoue was becoming more withdrawn from their group.

They were all sitting in class when the Quincy cast a glance over to Inoue and allowed a slight frown to pull at his lips. Inoue was staring off into space again. This was nothing new for her, but this time she had a slightly sad look to her that spoke of something that was weighing heavily on her mind. He wondered what could possibly make the seemingly carefree Inoue seem so downcast. He also noticed that she hadn't been taking her meals with the rest of her friends lately, but had been making excuses and disappearing during lunch period. Ishida rarely joined them himself, but it was strange that Inoue would withdraw from everyone like that.

What bothered Ishida the most was that the others didn't seem to notice Inoue's odd behavior. They all just accepted her various excuses and didn't try to find out what was actually bothering her. Ishida had considered asking himself, but he recognized the desire to keep one's problems to one's self. It just struck him as odd that the rest of the group, who didn't seem to understand that fact, wasn't sticking in their noses.

Ishida sighed to himself and returned his attention to the current lecture. It was English lesson and Sensei had the great idea to read a Shakespearian play to help them learn and understand the language. Ishida had read many of the Bard's plays, but in a Japanese translation. The ones he had read were interesting, but he wasn't looking forward to muddling through them in their original language. From what he understood, it wasn't even a current form of the language so he wondered how reading it could possibly be of any use to them.

Sensei hadn't picked the play that they would read yet; she was just letting them know what was coming up. The bell rang then, signaling the end of class and the end of the week. It had been determined that the gang would all meet up again at Urahara's after school let out on Friday if nothing happened before then. The shopkeeper had seemed to think that by then he would have gathered enough information on his own to be able to deduce something and they all hoped that he would have some news for them.

They all quickly packed up their things and headed out, walking together to the strange shop that had become their base of operations. Ishida looked around as they walked before asking, "Where's Inoue-san?"

The rest paused and looked around. "I thought she had followed us," Rukia said surprised when she didn't spot their friend.

"Maybe she had something to take care of first," Chad suggested.

Ichigo was getting that worried frown on his face as he looked back towards the school. "Can't you sense her, Ishida?" he asked.

Ishida blinked and then said in a surprised voice, "No, I can't…"

Now all of them became quite concerned. Ichigo was already walking back towards the school before Rukia reached out and grabbed his arm. "Rukia?" he asked her as he glanced back at her.

"I'll go look for her, Ichigo," she said. "The rest of you go on to Urahara's. I think I have an idea of where she went."

"But Rukia…" Ichigo began.

"Trust me, Ichigo," Rukia said to him with a half smile. "We'll be along shortly."

Ichigo stared at her a moment before nodding. "All right, we'll see you soon."

Rukia nodded in return and gave him a smile before running off in the direction of the school again.

XXX

Urahara walked through the back of the shop, looking for Renji. "Jinta," he asked the boy as he carried a box of stuff into the shop. "Have you seen our freeloader?"

"Naw," the boy said as he sat the box down and looked up at his boss. "Ururu said he was going out a while ago though."

"Ah," Urahara said. "He must have been feeling a little cramped here." He turned then and strolled back through the shop. He poked his head in the room Renji had been staying and saw that his Gigai was also absent. "Went into town then…hmm."

Urahara pulled out his fan and waved it a few times beside his face as he thought. "He should be all right," he finally said, closing the fan and tucking it back inside his sleeve. "Just as long as he's back before the others arrive."

XXX

Renji had decided he had had enough hanging around the old shop. All he heard all day was how he was a freeloader and how grateful he should be for being allowed to stay there. If he had to sweep another floor, or haul another heavy box, he was going to lose it.

So when he was sure that no one was looking, he popped into his Gigai and decided to take a walk around town. He planned on being back before the others got out of school and showed up for their meeting, but he needed to get away for a few hours.

He had already spent a few hours downtown and hadn't really found anything all that interesting to do. He found himself wandering back towards the shop after a while. He knew he was headed in the general direction of the shop, but he was taking a slightly different path than normal just for a change of scenery. It really was strange being in the real world with no hollow activity going on. He was only sent there when there was an issue to take care of. Being idle for this long just wasn't his style.

But Renji thought that his luck was about to change for the better as he began to near a large, old, abandoned building. It was at that moment that he sensed something… He wasn't sure what it was, but it was some kind of strong spiritual presence. He also was sure that it wasn't Shinigami or hollow.

He smiled to himself as he took off in the direction that he could feel the spiritual disturbance. He hoped that he had found something that might give him a little hassle just so he could shake off this feeling of uselessness that had been setting in ever since he had arrived in the real world.

Renji found himself drawn back in the direction that he had come from. He paused and glanced back at the building. For a moment, he thought maybe there was something else there, but the presence back towards town was much stronger. He shook his head and headed after the stronger signature.

As soon as he arrived where he thought he had sensed the presence, though, the spiritual presence disappeared. He stood there a while, wondering what had just happened when all of a sudden he could sense it again. This time it was heading into the downtown area. Renji sighed and ran after the feeling.

He spent the next hour feeling as if he was on a wild goose chase. He kept following the disturbances through the town, but every time he thought that he had gotten close, it would disappear and then reappear further away.

He was standing in the back of an alley in a rather deserted part of town when he decided that the chase was pointless. He was just turning to leave when all of a sudden a wind rushed at him, knocking Renji back and into the wall at the back of the narrow alley.

When the wind stopped, Renji groaned as he picked himself up from the ground and looked around for what could have caused such a commotion. He was just preparing to pop his spirit pill to leaving his Gigai when a voice spoke.

"So, there are even more of you spiritually aware humans…"

"Human?" Renji asked with a smirk. "Who said I was human?" He popped the pill in his mouth and was quickly cast out of the Gigai body. He stood beside the body that was now inhabited by a temporary soul. Pulling out his Zanpakuto, Renji took a step forward and called out, "Abarai Renji, vice-captain of sixth protection squad. And who are you?"

There was a soft chuckle that seemed to fill all the air around Renji. "A vice-captain? In the real world… My, I must have created quite a stir." The voice was smooth and silky as it spoke.

Renji was looking all around, wondering where it could be coming from. It seemed to fill the entire area. "Show yourself, you coward!" Renji snapped. "Howl, Zabimaru!" he called, transforming his Zanpakuto.

"As you wish," the voice said. Suddenly a tear formed in the air in front of Renji. The Shinigami gasped as he took a step back, watching two bright blue eyes appear in the darkness inside the tear. "We will see who the coward really is…" the voice said, now coming directly from the tear in front of Renji.

XXX

Rukia quickly returned to the school grounds and into the greens behind the building. She had noticed Inoue sneaking off that way yesterday when she had said that she was going to go to the library during lunch. Rukia went to the back where a few trees had grown up and began to look around for her friend. After a moment, she spotted the soft yellow glow of Inoue's rejection shield coming from the other side of a large tree trunk.

"Inoue?" she asked quietly as she stepped around the trunk to face the girl.

Inoue jumped up with a gasp, dismissing the shield she had been hiding behind and quickly wiping a tear away from her cheek. "Kuchiki-san!" she said. "What… What are you doing here?"

Rukia looked the girl over, wondering what it was that had gotten her so upset. "I was looking for you," she said. "We were worried when we noticed that you hadn't followed us after class."

"I was coming, I just… I just needed…" Inoue faltered, not knowing what to say.

"Inoue," Rukia said softly taking another step closer to her friend. "I think I know what has been going on."

Inoue looked extremely worried at that and put her hands up in front of her as if to ward Rukia off. "No, it's not that… it's just…"

"Inoue, you don't have to fear anything from me," Rukia explained carefully. "Nothing. You are one of my best friends, Inoue. And I have no plans to come between you and Ichigo…"

Inoue froze in place, stunned almost in to catatonia. "You… you know…" she stammered.

"I know the way that you have looked at him… I know the way that you have looked at me when we're together. You don't want to come between us, but it hurts for you to think of someone else with him… Am I right?"

"I…I…" Inoue didn't know what to say. She could feel hot tears beginning to form at the corners of her eyes again.

"Inoue, Ichigo and I are only dear friends. As I said, you have nothing to fear from me." She took another step towards Inoue and reached out her arms to the shaken girl. Inoue didn't resist as Rukia pulled her into a hug, but she didn't return it either.

"Kuchiki-san…" she said softly.

"I will always be your friend, Inoue. If there is anything that you ever need to talk about, you can come to me. I don't ever want you to feel like you can't."

Slowly, Inoue came out of her stupor and wrapped her arms around Rukia as well, trying desperately to disperse her unshed tears. "Thank you, Kuchiki-san," she whispered into Rukia's ear.

Rukia pulled away and was about to say something else when she suddenly gasped and turned around, staring off towards town. "Renji…" she breathed.

"Kuchiki-san?" Inoue asked but Rukia didn't respond to her. The petite Shinigami suddenly popped her spirit pill and stepped out of her Gigai and took off at a run without saying another word to Inoue.

The girl stood there a moment with the rather ditzy temporary soul that had replaced Rukia, wondering what had just happened. "Kuchiki-san," she muttered before running after the Shinigami. Clearly Rukia had just sensed something and Inoue felt she needed to be there for Rukia. She knew, though, that she was no match for the Shinigami's speed so she was probably not going to be of much help when she reached wherever Rukia was headed.

XXX

Ichigo, Ishida, and Chad all walked into Urahara's shop and called out for the owner. "Oi! Urahara!" Ichigo said, walking through the shop and into the back.

"Ah, welcome," Urahara said as he came from another room. "Right on time…" he looked around and said, "Well, some of you anyway… Where are Kuchiki and Inoue-san?"

Ichigo exchanged a look with Ishida and Chad and then turned and shrugged. "They should be here soon," he told Urahara.

"Well, let's have some tea while we wait," Urahara said with a smile and gestured for them to sit down at the circular table in the center of the room.

Ichigo and Chad sat down with Urahara. Once they were kneeling at the table, Ichigo looked up and noticed that Ishida was still standing. The Quincy looked as if he was concentrating on something as he looked off into the distance.

"Ishida?" Ichigo asked.

"Don't you feel that?" Ishida said.

"Hmm," Urahara said, also standing again. "Now that you mention it…" he hid the lower half of his face behind his fan. "Something has just appeared."

"What?" Ichigo asked, standing up.

No one answered him as Chad slowly stood as well, also facing the same direction as Ishida and Urahara. "It's the same as before…" Chad said.

"Yes…" Urahara said as he slowly closed the fan and put it back in his sleeve. He glanced around the room a moment and then sighed. "Abarai…" he muttered.

Ichigo glanced around and said, "Renji? Where is he? I thought he was here?"

"He went out earlier," Urahara said.

"He's following it…" Ishida said as he headed for the exit.

Ichigo was about to follow behind the Quincy when he felt a sudden tap on his back. He glanced back and realized that Urahara had just used the end of his cane to knock his Shinigami form out of his body. "I think you'll be of more use like that, don't you think?" Urahara said to Ichigo.

Ichigo nodded and then turned and quickly followed Chad and Ishida out of the shop. "Has it started?" Yoruichi asked in the deep voice of her cat form as she slowly walked into the room.

Urahara narrowed his eyes and replied, "I don't know. I think this might be the root of our problem rather than the fruit…" he said softly.

Yoruichi jumped up onto the table and turned around to face Urahara. "What are you going to do?"

Urahara turned and walked further back into the house. "Nothing, for now," he said and disappeared into one of the house's many rooms.

XXX

Rukia had been running towards where she had sensed her childhood friend's reiatsu suddenly spike. In an instant, Renji's spirit pressure suddenly disappeared. Rukia stopped for only a split second and then switched to Shunpo, flashing across the town towards where she had just sensed her friend. "Renji…" she spoke softly, praying that he was still alive.

She reached an alley in the run down part of town just as a blast of wind rushed out of it. She was sure that a second before she had arrived, there was a sense of some strange spirit energy that had been incredibly powerful of which she didn't know the nature.

All thought of that, though, was quickly washed from her mind. "Renji!" she cried out as she ran to the back of the alley. Renji was lying crumpled face down on the ground, unmoving. His Gigai appeared to have been torn to shreds and was leaning against the back wall, blank eyes staring straight ahead. "Renji," she said again, dropping to her knees beside Renji's spirit body. His Zanpakuto was lying on the ground beside him.

Rukia slowly turned Renji over. There was a deep, bloody gash across his chest and what appeared to be claw marks all around it, shredding both skin and fabric to ribbons. "Renji!" she cried again, as she placed her hand over her friend's chest and tried to settle her emotions enough to use what little healing Kido she knew.

She didn't even realize that she had begun to shed tears when she heard a slight gasp from the end of the alley. Looking up, she saw Inoue standing there, hand covering her mouth, looking at the scene.

"Inoue!" Rukia cried. "It's Renji! Please, help me!"

Inoue quickly shook off her shock and ran down the alley, throwing her healing field ahead of her and covering both Rukia and Renji with it. Rukia never stopped her own healing, but she could see the wounds beginning to close now that Inoue was using her own techniques.

"Renji," Rukia called to her friend. "Come on, Renji… come back to me."

All the while, Rukia never felt a flicker of Renji's reiatsu. He was still breathing, albeit shallowly. He still had a weak pulse. But there wasn't a bit of spirit pressure coming from him. "Renji…" Rukia said in a near whisper.

Suddenly Ichigo and Ishida appeared behind Inoue. "Renji!" Ichigo exclaimed upon catching sight of the wounded Shinigami.

"Ichigo…" Rukia said, looking up at him with slightly teary eyes. "I… I don't know what happened. I… I found him… like this."

Ichigo stared back at Rukia, feeling as if he had just failed her. He was supposed to be the one to protect them, and now Renji had been hurt.

"Inoue-san…" Ishida said softly. "How is he?"

"I… I don't know," Inoue replied, still concentrating on her healing. "I can heal his wounds, but… but I can't sense him… I'm not sure what's going on."

Chad came running up from around the corner at that time with the armor already covering his right arm. He couldn't run quite as fast as Ichigo with his Shunpo and Ishida with his Hirenkyaku. "What happened?" he asked as he saw the scene at the end of the alley.

"We don't know," Ishida said. "I suggest we get Abarai back to the shop quickly. Maybe Urahara-san or Tessai-san will be able to do something for him."

Ichigo watched as Rukia tried to bite back a sob when she looked back at her injured friend. "I'll take him," Ichigo said, stepping forward and lifting the wounded Shinigami from Rukia's arms.

"Thank you, Ichigo," she whispered to him.

They exchanged a pained look before Ichigo turned and then vanished. Rukia sat on the ground as if in a trance. "Kuchiki-san…?" Inoue said softly to her. "We should go too."

Rukia nodded numbly and stood up slowly. Her foot brushed against something on the ground, causing a slight clatter sound. She looked down and saw Renji's Zanpakuto. Slowly, Rukia bent over and picked the blade up and held it in front of her.

"Zabimaru…" she said softly. "I don't sense Zabimaru anymore either…" She turned to face the other three and asked in a distant voice, "What is going on?"

A/N: ok, yeah, I might have a crush on Urahara… so sue me


	4. Chapter 4

A/N:…

Inoue pokes her head on the stage and looks around nervously. "Umm…" she says as she takes a step out. "I guess I could do the disclaimer today. It seems that Mystica-san is still in the green room with Urahara-san. At least that's what I was told. For some reason no one else has been allowed in there since they went in after the disclaimer last time. It seems kind of odd that they would disappear like that, I mean, isn't Mystica-san supposed to be working on our story and Urahara-san has been pretty important to things. Maybe they're talking about how they want things to go. Or maybe how Mystica-san see's Urahara-san's position in her…"

Ishida suddenly pokes head on stage, interrupting Inoue. "…Psst, Inoue-san."

"Oh, Ishida-kun!"

"Inoue-san, I think that you should just go ahead and disclaim the story," he says as he blushes slighlty

"Oh! Of course! Mystica-san does not own Bleach."

Chapter 4

Urahara was waiting beside Tessai when Ichigo appeared outside the shop. "Kurosaki-san," Urahara said quietly as he walked up to look down at Renji's inert body in Ichigo's arms. "What happened?"

"I don't know, Urahara-san," Ichigo replied breathlessly. "Rukia found him like this. Inoue was able to heal his wounds, but he won't wake!"

Tessai was suddenly at Ichigo's side, taking Renji out of his arms. "Allow me," he said.

Ichigo stood there dumbly as Tessai took Renji and disappeared into the shop. He took a step to follow, but Urahara held out his cane in his path. "Let Tessai do his job, Ichigo. He will do whatever he can for Abarai."

Ichigo swallowed heavily as he stared at the door that Tessai had just carried Renji through. "What do I tell her…?" Ichigo said softly. "What do I tell Rukia if…?"

"The truth," Urahara said simply as he lowered his cane. "That is all that we can ever tell one another. But don't count Abarai out of it yet, Ichigo. We have not even begun to explore all of the options."

With that, Urahara turned and walked into the shop. Ichigo stood there a moment longer before he too entered the building. As he walked through the rooms, he didn't see Urahara anywhere but he did eventually find where Tessai was working on Renji.

The large man had a cube of yellow light surrounding Renji's body and his eyes were closed in intense concentration. Ichigo was reminded of the time that Tessai had been down in the hole with him, binding his arms behind his back while he slowly transformed into a hollow. It was all been part of a training exercise that Urahara was using to return Ichigo's Shinigami powers to him… but it had had some interesting after effects.

Ichigo sighed at the memory, realizing now that that was when he had first begun his hollowfication. Had that been Urahara's intention all along? Ichigo didn't know, nor did he think that he would ever really know.

Still, none of that mattered. Whether or not Urahara, and possibly Tessai, had intentionally put Ichigo on a path towards hollowfication, they had helped him in either case. He had acquired the strength and power to save Rukia and then, as he learned how to use those hollow powers, rather than be subsumed by them, he was able to save countless others. Even if he didn't know all of their motives, Ichigo trusted both these men with his life… And now he was forced to trust them with the life of one of his friends.

Ichigo sensed another presence enter the room behind him. A small hand slipped into his and squeezed it. He looked down and saw Rukia standing beside him. Her eyes were fixed on Renji's unmoving form, isolated under the cube of yellow light.

"Ichigo…" she said softly to him. "I'm scared."

Ichigo felt his stomach flip, not knowing what to say to her. He couldn't bear to see her so distraught. Not knowing anything else to do, he slipped his arm around her shoulders, and held her small form to his own as they stood there, willing Renji to wake up.

XXX

Inoue stood outside the door to where Renji was, across the other room, looking in on the scene.

_"Inoue, you don't have to fear anything from me," Rukia explained carefully. "Nothing. You are one of my best friends, Inoue. And I have no plans to come between you and Ichigo…"_

The memory of Rukia's words echoed in Inoue's head.

_"Inoue, Ichigo and I are only dear friends. As I said, you have nothing to fear from me." _

"Kurosaki-kun," she whispered to herself, staring at the two of them. She felt absolutely horrible for feeling the way that she did at a time like that. She couldn't understand how she could possibly even think about such matters when a friend of theirs was so grievously hurt. She closed her eyes and walked out of the room and into another. She knelt down at the table they all so often gathered around and sat there in the dim room, alone, waiting to hear some news and trying to get her own emotions under control.

XXX

Chad and Ishida had stayed at the scene and were searching for some clue as to what had happened. "Whatever it was," Ishida said. "It had the same feel to it as that disturbance that created the earthquake last week."

Chad nodded as he slowly walked around the area, trying to sense anything that could help them. Ishida knelt beside the remains of the Gigai. "Didn't Abarai use a spirit pill to get out of his Gigai?" he asked suddenly.

"Yes," Chad said as he came to stand over Ishida. "It must have been destroyed with the body."

Ishida's brow furrowed as he examined the Gigai. "I don't think so," he said. "These cuts, they didn't go in deep enough or in the right places to have damaged the pill. But there clearly is no soul inside this body."

"Could it have been taken out?" Chad asked.

Ishida stood up as he said, "Possibly. After all, we know several methods to remove a spirit pill from a body. But why would whoever did this want it? That one wasn't a true soul… It wasn't even a mod soul. I don't know why anyone would have wanted to take it."

The Quincy took another walk down the alley before turning back to Chad. "I don't think there is anything more we can do here," he said.

Chad nodded and walked up beside Ishida. "Let's go back to Urahara's and see if there is any news on Abarai," Ishida said and they both turned and headed for the shop.

A tiny tear once again opened far above their heads and blue eyes watched them leave. "They really are humans…" the silky voice said. "Who would have thought…?" the tear closed again, sealing those blue eyes inside.

Ishida gave a start and looked up over his shoulder. "Ishida?" Chad asked.

The Quincy scanned the area but didn't see anything and whatever he thought he had sensed was gone again. "It's nothing," he said and then returned on his original path.

XXX

It felt to Ichigo that he and Rukia had been standing there in the doorway waiting for something to change for forever. But nothing did. Renji never moved, never opened his eyes, and never showed the faintest of hints that he was even still with them.

It was probably about two hours later that Tessai finally opened his eyes and blinked. A few beads of sweat trickled down his face and he appeared to be quite exhausted as he slowly stood up. "Tessai-san!" Rukia exclaimed when she saw him stand.

He turned towards her with a grave expression. "Kuchiki-san… There is nothing that I can do for him."

Rukia stifled a sob with her hand as she stood there, trying to will Tessai to give her another answer. Ichigo gripped her shoulder tighter with his hand that was still wrapped around her. "I cannot do anything for him…" Tessai repeated. "But it may be possible that Captain Unohana-san can."

Rukia sniffed and brought her hand down. "Unohana-san…" she said. "But the gates…"

"I believe that I can have another one up," Urahara said as he stepped into the room behind Rukia and Ichigo. "But it will probably be the last one until we get this cleared up."

Rukia and Ichigo turned around to face Urahara. "You think you can do it?" Ichigo asked. Rukia just looked up at him with a hopeful expression.

He nodded. "I was afraid that Abarai may need to be returned to Soul Society so I have been working on setting up a way to aid me in opening the gate since you brought him."

"Urahara-san…" Rukia said, filled with gratitude towards him for having thought ahead like that.

"No more talking," Urahara said. "Time is of the essence." He nodded to Tessai who dismissed the healing field and then picked Renji up. "Let's hurry," Urahara said.

Tessai carried Renji down into the practice grounds below the shop, following in Urahara's wake. Rukia and Ichigo were close behind him. Urahara led them to a place where two large wooden pillars had been planted into the ground. He paused just in front of the center of them and turned to face the others. "Someone is going to have to take him across to Soul Society and explain what little we know happened to Captain Unohana," he said.

Rukia was about to volunteer but Urahara stopped her with a raised hand and said, "Let me remind you, there is a possibility that you will not be able to come back, Kuchiki-san."

Rukia looked up at Ichigo. "We can take care of things here," he told her.

She thought a moment before saying, "I should remain here. Someone from Soul Society is supposed to be here until this is finished."

Urahara nodded and then a voice spoke up. "I'll take him." A black cat hopped down from a nearby rock and walked over to them. "But you need to try and hold the gate open for me to try and make it back, Kisuke," Yoruichi said.

He nodded to her. "No offence, Rukia, but Yoruichi-san is faster and has a better chance making it back before I am forced to let the gate close."

"Thank you, Yoruichi-san," Rukia said to the cat.

Urahara then turned towards the space between the pillars and began to chant softly. After a moment, he stabbed his cane into the ground and twisted it in place. Slowly the gates materialized between the pillars and slid apart.

Yoruichi quickly jumped up, transforming from cat to woman in an instant, and took Renji from Tessai's arms. Ichigo blushed and turned his head, wondering why she had to be so bold about being naked in front of them. "I'll be back soon, Kisuke," she said as she passed Urahara.

The shopkeeper was kneeling on one knee in front of the gate, gripping his cane with his eyes closed in a great amount of concentration. The naked Yoruichi leapt through the gate and immediately vanished.

XXX

Chad and Ishida had returned to the shop some time ago and had joined Inoue at the table to wait on word of Renji. Ishida kept casting sideway glances at Inoue, noticing how quiet she was being and the strange look of…what?… was it despair? But that didn't seem right for Inoue.

After a while, Inoue stood up and walked over to the door that led back out into the shop without a word. "Inoue-san?" Ishida asked. "Where are you going?"

Inoue didn't turn around as she said, "I feel useless here. I'm going to go home for now. If anything happens, would you please let me know, Ishida-kun?"

Chad and Ishida exchanged a confused look before Ishida replied, "Of course."

"Thank you," she said softly and then slipped out.

Ishida slowly shook his head wondering what was going on with that girl. Everything that she said and did these days just wasn't like her. Still, he knew what it was like to want to deal with something on your own. He wasn't going to press her if she didn't want to talk. He just hoped that she would realize that sometimes it is better to have help with your problems than to suffer through them on your own. That was a lesson that was tough for him to learn and he was still dealing with.

XXX

Rukia and Ichigo stood together, waiting for Yoruichi to return from her trip to Soul Society. With a glance at Urahara, Ichigo could see beads of sweat beginning to slide down the man's face. His expression remained cool and concentrated, but Ichigo was beginning to sense exactly how much strain it was on him to hold the gate open.

Suddenly Urahara's other leg gave out, bringing him to both knees. Now he was using his cane as the only means to keep himself upright. "Urahara-san!" Ichigo said as he took a step towards the ex-Shinigami.

Tessai's arm shot out and prevented Ichigo from going further. "You mustn't break his concentration," the large man said. "It's taking everything he has to hold that passage open, if you disrupt him, he could lose it."

Ichigo looked up at Tessai who never took his eyes off of Urahara as he spoke. Ichigo nodded and then took a step back.

They waited another half hour. The strain was now becoming evident on Urahara's face as his arms began to shake slightly. "He's not going to be able to hold it much longer, is he?" Rukia said softly.

Suddenly Yoruichi came leaping from the gate. Ichigo didn't even have a chance to blush at her nakedness before she returned to her cat form even before hitting the ground. She turned around and walked up beside Urahara. "Kisuke," she said to him. "I'm back. You can let go now."

With a slight shudder and gasp, Urahara opened his eyes and released his grip on his cane with one hand. He pitched forward slightly, catching himself on the ground with that hand where he leaned for a moment, taking a few deep breaths. The gates suddenly snapped shut and vanished from sight.

"Urahara-san," Ichigo said, quickly crossing over to the shopkeeper. He placed a hand on Urahara's shoulder, but he was already straitening up. He waved Ichigo's hand away and stood up, with only a slight wobble, on his own.

"It's all right, Ichigo." He said. "I'll be fine in a moment." He turned and looked down at the cat by his feet. "You certainly took you time, Yoruichi," he said.

The cat didn't look too concerned as she explained, "You know how it goes over there. You can't get anything accomplished without having to answer a hail of questions. Though really, once I found Unohana it was fairly straight forward. She simply took him and began her work, no questions asked. It was Byakuya that kept slowing my return."

"Nii-sama?" Rukia said, coming forward and kneeling beside the cat. "What did he say?"

Yoruichi yawned and then sat down on the ground as she continued. "He was just pretty insistent on knowing what had happened. He didn't seem to like that I didn't have a lot of information to give him. But you can be sure that he'll be looking over Renji for you, Rukia."

Rukia gave a slight sigh as she tried not to fall into grateful tears. "And Renji…?" she asked almost in a whisper.

The cat shook her head, "I don't know. Unohana said she hadn't seen anything like it before. But you know her, she'll do whatever she can to bring him back."

Rukia nodded and then slowly stood up. Ichigo came over to stand behind her and put his arms around her again. She looked up at him and smiled a watery smile of thanks for his support. "We should go tell the others," Rukia said, pulling out of Ichigo's embrace.

"And we need to discuss a few things," Urahara said as he headed for the stairway. He looked completely recovered already as he took the lead.

Urahara, Rukia, and Ichigo all filed into the room where Ishida and Chad were waiting. They each took a seat at the table before Yoruichi, still in cat form, came in and hopped up on the table and took a seat there.

"Abarai?" Chad asked.

"He was sent on to Soul Society," Urahara said. "Tessai was not able to do anything for him here. We hope that Captain Unohana-san will be able to help."

"Do you know what happened?" Ishida asked after both he and Chad took a moment to take in how serious the situation must be.

Urahara shook his head. "We don't know. His injuries have been healed, but we could not restore his reiatsu… It is possible that it is some type of poison that we have not encountered before, but it is impossible to say at this point."

"And we're now effectively cut off from Soul Society," Rukia said softly.

Yoruichi spoke up and said, "Frankly, Kisuke, I'm surprised you were able to hold the gate open as long as you did. The disturbances that I could sense within the passage have grown vastly in strength."

Urahara frowned slightly before saying, "It was tricky… But I think if absolutely necessary, I could probably pull it off at least once more for another day or two. After that…" He let his statement hang in the air.

"Have you learned anything else about what is causing this?" Rukia asked.

"Not much," Yoruichi said. "From all that Kisuke and I have been able to tell, along with the little bit of data we have gotten from Soul Society, this is something that we haven't seen before. The best guess that we have been able to come up with at this point is that these disturbances have to be coming from another dimension."

"Another dimension?" Ichigo said.

Urahara nodded as he pulled out his fan and began to wave it beside his face. "Yes… That is the most likely scenario at this point. It also means that finding some way to come up against this threat is going to prove quite difficult."

"I don't understand," Chad said. "What other dimension could this be coming from?"

"Ah, yes," Urahara said switching into a lecturing tone. "As you know, there are several dimensions. We are aware of five. There is this one, the real world… Then there is Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, Valley of screams, and hell."

"Kisuke…" Yoruichi said as she looked at him pointedly.

"Ah… yes… I was forgetting one, wasn't I?" he said with a slight laugh. "There, of course, is the separate dimension that the Spirit King resides in… but no one really ever thinks about that one." He waved his fan dismissively and then pressed on.

"Besides those five… well, six, it is theorized that there may be more. But no one has ever found them."

"So, if they do exist," Ishida said. "Then we wouldn't know what to expect from someone from one of them because we have no idea what those dimensions might be like."

Urahara nodded, "Precisely."

"And you think that it is someone from one of those other dimensions that's causing this?" Ichigo said.

"That is our best guess at the moment," Urahara said. "All we know for sure is that someone is tampering with the powers in the precipice world. That is what is causing the damage here and in Soul Society and disrupting communication and travel between them."

"And it apparently is disrupting travel between here and Hueco Mundo as well," Rukia said. "There hasn't been a single hollow since we came here."

Yoruichi nodded, "That also means that the path to hell is also sealed. Souls that are here in the real world are not able to be buried for the time being because they can go to neither Soul Society nor hell."

"So, if this keeps up for very long…" Ichigo said.

Ishida pushed his glasses up and finished for him. "We're going to have quite a few hollows here in the real world after all."

"Yes," Urahara said. "Those souls that are trapped here will eventually become hollows. Those hollows cannot leave to go to Hueco Mundo. If we slay them as normal with Zanpakutos, it won't do any good because the released spirits will still be trapped here and they will just revert back into hollows."

"The town will be overrun by them," Chad spoke up.

They were all silent a while before Urahara snapped his fan open again and brought it up to his face. He gave a slight laugh before saying, "I very much doubt things will progress that far…"

"Why not, Urahara-san?" Ichigo asked.

The laughter quickly left his voice as Urahara said, "Because whoever is doing this will probably make their move before then."

XXX

For having nothing to do, matters were beginning to seem quite grave. Ichigo and Rukia walked home that night together, not saying anything. Ichigo wasn't sure what he should say to Rukia. He knew that she was hurting, worrying about her closest friend, not knowing what was happening with him and having no way of finding out was tearing her up.

Ichigo wondered how it was that Rukia had decided to stay here in the real world when she knew she would be cut off from Renji. Did she not trust him to be able to handle whatever was coming?

Ichigo shook his head to himself and decided that that wasn't it. Rukia had shown her trust in his abilities from the moment that they had met. She had been willing to split her own powers with him to help him protect his family. She had trusted him to be able to do that and put her own life on the line in that moment.

No, it wasn't that she didn't trust him. But then what?

"Rukia…?" he said to her.

She glanced up at him but continued walking.

"Rukia, why…? Why did you stay here?"

She continued to look at him from one eye for a moment longer before casting her gaze downward again. "Why did I stay?" she repeated. "I have been wondering that myself."

Ichigo was a little surprised at her answer.

"I'm beginning to wonder if it might have been out of fear…"

"Fear?"

"I suppose I was afraid of losing my resolve if I were to see Renji die," she said softly. "I'm not sure I would be able to keep fighting if I knew… if I actually witnessed…" she broke off as she forced a sob down her throat.

"Rukia…" Ichigo said, not sure what he could say to her.

She swallowed and then stopped her walking and looked up at Ichigo. "I can't lose him, Ichigo," she said plainly and clearly. "But most importantly for now, I can't _know_ that I have lost him. As long as he is in Soul Society and I don't hear otherwise, I can continue on, hoping that he is all right."

"He'll be all right, Rukia," Ichigo told her. "Renji is too stubborn not to be."

Rukia couldn't help but offer a tiny smile at that. "That he is…" she said and then turned and resumed walking.

They were almost to Ichigo's house when Rukia spoke again. "Ichigo," she said softly. "I could never lose you either."

Ichigo simply sighed and just accepted the statement without comment. He knew that she felt that way. He also knew that he was the same. Not only Rukia, but Inoue, Chad, Ishida, his sisters, his dad… he wasn't sure if he could hold onto his resolve if he ever lost any one of them.

"He'll be all right," Ichigo said again, softly. It was more for himself now than for her.

XXX

Ishida paused just outside of Inoue's door. As he was leaving the shop, he remembered that he had promised Inoue that he would fill her in afterward. He was now standing just on the other side of her apartment entrance, listening to soft murmurings coming from the other side. He could sense that she was the only one in there, but he could make out several different voices, though he didn't know what any of them were saying.

Deciding that it wasn't any of his business, he brought his hand up and lightly tapped on the door. There was sudden silence as soon as he knocked and a moment later, Inoue was opening the door. She brushed a hand quickly across her cheek as she looked up to see who was there.

"Ishida-kun!" she exclaimed. "I…I didn't expect you this late," she said, stepping back and gesturing for him to enter.

He hesitated a moment. It was clear that she had just been crying. That brush across her cheek had been removing the tear streaks that had been there. Her eyes were now sparkling with the after moisture from those tears and rimmed in red. Still, he knew that she had tried to cover up the fact she had been crying for a reason, so he didn't bring it up.

"Inoue-san," he said as he stepped through the door. He didn't go any further than that though. "I just wanted to tell you that Abarai has been taken to Soul Society for Captain Unohana-san to tend to. There had been no change when he left and we are now cut off from Soul Society for the time being."

Inoue put a hand to her mouth as she gasped. "Poor Abarai-san," she said. "I wish… I wish there is something that I could have done…"

Ishida nudged his glasses up his nose as he said, "Urahara-san told us that there is nothing that any of us could have done. Whatever happened is something that none of them have seen before and have no way of combating."

Inoue nodded and then turned and walked away from Ishida to plop down on a pillow in the middle of the room. "Thank you for letting me know, Ishida-kun," she said softly.

"Inoue-san…" he said. "It's not your fault…"

"I know," she was quick to say. "I just… I just feel so useless…" she nearly whispered as she sat there, staring at her hands in her lap.

Ishida took a moment to look her over. It was rare that he saw her in such a state of despair. Inoue was normally the one that would find whatever silver lining there might be and remind them what it was that they were fighting for. Now she was sitting there feeling sorry for herself. This should have been the point where she was reassuring him that Renji would be fine… That Unohana would know exactly what to do.

"Inoue-san…" he started to say.

"Thank you, Ishida-kun," she said again. "I'm pretty tired now. I'll see you again soon."

That was a dismissal if he ever heard one. He stood a moment, hesitant to leave her alone like this but not seeing any way of staying without blatantly ignoring her desire for privacy. With a silent sigh, he turned and stepped through the doorway. "Good night, Inoue-san," he said from the threshold and then closed the door softly behind him.

XXX

Ichigo woke early the next morning with a start. The sun had hardly even crested the horizon yet, but he knew that something had just awakened him. A second later, Rukia burst into his bedroom, already transformed into her Shinigami form.

"Wake up, Ichigo!" she cried as she leapt up onto his bed and reached down with her spirit glove on, grabbing Ichigo by the arm. She hauled his spirit out of his body and then pulled him through the open window with her.

"Oi!" He exclaimed. "What's the big idea?" Though his sleep muddled brain was beginning to sense what had gotten Rukia so excited.

"Can't you sense it?" she said, still dragging him behind her as she ran.

A roar sounded ahead of them and Ichigo sighed, "A hollow."

Rukia let go of him now that he had found his feet and was running on his own. "How'd it get here?" Ichigo asked as he reached behind his back and pulled Zangetsu free from its bindings.

"I don't know. But judging from the feel, it isn't one that was just created. There is too much power behind it to be new. Somehow this one was either here already, or found a way to cross over from Hueco Mundo."

The pair ran up a hill and then turned a corner. There, in front of them, stood a massive hollow. It was about two times as tall at Ichigo. It had a humanoid appearance to it except for the eight white tentacles that sprang forth from behind its mask.

The hollow turned around slowly and looked at them as they came into view. It opened its mouth, showing the double jaw of razor teeth, and howled at them.

XXX

Ishida woke up with a start at about the same time as Ichigo. He had felt the hollow appear as well. With a sigh, he quickly got up and dressed and left, chasing the reiatsu of the hollow. It wasn't very far from Ichigo's house, he realized. But that meant that he had a ways to go to get there himself. He sighed again, thinking that it was probably pointless for him to even bother with this one since Ichigo would probably have it down before he got there.

He could feel that this was not a weakling hollow by any means, but it should be well within Ichigo's power to handle on his own. Still, he was already up and out, he might as well check to make sure that more didn't pop up while Ichigo and Rukia were busy.

XXX

After the hollow's initial howl, it turned all the way around to face them. Ichigo gripped his Zanpakuto and took a moment to look his opponent over. There didn't seem to be anything special about this one, just another mindless killing machine that needed to be taken care of.

The hollow hunched over, looking as if it was about to charge at Ichigo headfirst. Ichigo decided to take the initiative and launched into his own charge first. Suddenly the tentacles from behind the mask snapped out, hurling blasts of blue-green light at Ichigo.

He jumped back, out of the spray of energy, wondering what it was that had just happened. He stood there a moment, reevaluating the situation. He didn't know what that blast was, but he was pretty sure that he didn't want to find out.

"Be careful, Ichigo," he heard Rukia say to him. She was standing with her hand on the hilt of her own Zanpakuto, ready to back him up, but not going to interfere until he needed her.

He nodded once to her and then launched another attack at the hollow. He didn't even see the blast that struck him in the chest. One minute he was flying through the air, aiming a strike at the hollow's face, the next he was knocked back with the force of the impact.

It hadn't really hurt like he had expected, but as he began to pick himself up from the ground he realized that something was very wrong. Every muscle and nerve of his body seemed to have developed a will of its own and was fighting his every movement. He was rapidly losing control of his own body.

A/N: Yay cliff hanger! Please review… I am feeling rather lonely here And please let me know if the disclaimer is getting annoying or if you like it. It was an experiment and I'd like to know if it is any good.

Also, Readreedred… your PM's are disabled again making it hard to respond to your question, lol.


	5. Chapter 5

I stumble on stage looking a bit disheveled before spotting the crowd and say, "Uh, oh, hi there. Sorry about last time, I was a little… occupied. A big thanks to Inoue for stepping up and covering for me. So," I clear my throat uncomfortably. "Who should we hear from this week? How about…"

Suddenly Yoruichi's voice can be heard off stage, "Where is she!"

"Eek!"

Yoruichi storms on stage, "Ah, there she is. So, I hear you were absent last time…"

"Ah, well, you see, I was a bit busy, what with editing and all that… you know I don't have a Beta so it takes a lot of time to…"

Yoruichi crosses her arms and stares at me as she says, "I couldn't find Kisuke either…"

All I can manage is some unintelligible muttering.

Yoruichi reaches out and grabs my wrist and says, "Let's have a little talk, girl to girl, what do you say?"

"Well, um, you see… my story needs to be disclaimed right now so…"

Yoruichi rolls her eyes and quickly says, "Mystica does not own Bleach… There, now let's go chat, shall we?" And she drags me off of the stage.

"Help," I squeak just before I disappear.

And then the curtain rises…

Chapter 5

"Ichigo!" Rukia cried as she watched the blast from the hollow hit him. The substitute Shinigami crumpled to the ground, muscles flexing and a strained cry coming from his mouth.

"Stay… back…" he muttered to her through clenched teeth.

"Damn it, Ichigo. Hold on!" she called to him and ran past him, drawing her own Zanpakuto. Just as she was level with him, his hand shot out, grabbing her ankle and causing her to trip.

"Damn it!" he gasped. "Let go!" His right hand was still grasping Rukia's ankle when she looked back at him. He was bringing his left hand across to grab his right, but even that hand didn't seem willing to do what he wanted.

"Rukia… get out of here," he told her when he was finally able to pry his fingers from her ankle.

"Ichigo…" she said, wavering in what she needed to do. She couldn't leave him here... not like this. But something had gone terribly wrong and he was telling her to leave. If Ichigo was telling her that she needed to get away, then he probably had a good reason for it. "Idiot…" she told him as she started to stand again as she tightened her grip on her Zanpakuto.

"Rukia…" Ichigo nearly whispered. "Run." Suddenly he screamed as a burst of energy erupted from him.

Rukia cried out as she put her arms up, trying to deflect the blast from her face, but she was knocked back and fell into a dead faint several meters away.

Ichigo continued to cry out in pain as his energy began to pour out of him. The hollow stood back a short distance and laughed; all pretense of being a mindless beast dropped. "All that energy… it's such a waste. How about I put it to some good use?" It reached a tentacle out and seemed to caress the wall of energy that was pouring out of Ichigo.

Ichigo had no control what so ever. The more he tried to fight for it, the worse the situation became. The only way he knew how to fight was through brute strength, but that meant using more reiatsu and that was exactly what this thing wanted. It was forcing his spirit power out of him and then eating it up.

Suddenly a blast of blue sliced through the air, flying by Ichigo and hitting the tentacle of the hollow that was drawing on Ichigo's energy. It shrieked in pain as the end of its limb was shot off.

Ichigo collapsed, shaking with the strain of still trying to take control of his own body. "Ish...ida," he gasped as he saw the Quincy step forward.

"I'll take care of this one, Kurosaki…" he said as he raised his web like bow and pulled back to fire.

The hollow glared at him before saying, "How are you going to take care of me if you're too busy fighting your friend?" Ishida gasped and spun to face Ichigo just as the Shinigami was launching himself at the Quincy.

"Kurosaki!" he exclaimed as Ichigo slashed at him. Between Ishida's fast reaction and Ichigo's wobbly aim, the blade missed entirely.

"Ishida, get out of here!" Ichigo said. "That thing's controlling me."

"Che," Ishida sighed as he leapt out of the way of another poorly aimed attack. "If that's all the better that thing can do, you don't have to worry about me," he told his friend. He used his Hirenkyaku to put some more distance from Ichigo and then brought his bow to aim on the hollow again.

"Look again," it said to him and Ishida realized that it had been able to use Ichigo's Shunpo to close their distance. Ishida was forced to lower his bow again as he dodged yet another attack.

"Ishida…" Ichigo gasped. "It's getting stronger… I can't…fight… much longer."

Ishida avoided another swing but with even less margin. If this kept up, it didn't seem long before this hollow would have complete control over Ichigo's reiatsu. When that happened, Ishida wouldn't stand a chance. There may have been a time when the Quincy had thought that he could challenge Ichigo, but that time had come and gone. If the hollow gained access to all of Ichigo's abilities…

"Ish…ida…" Ichigo gasped. "Shoot…me…"

Ishida gasped and took another step back to avoid another now well-aimed strike. "Kurosaki…" he muttered.

"Just… do it."

Ishida ducked under another swing from the Zanpakuto and then used Hirenkyaku to getout of range. Taking a breath, he spun around and aimed at his friend to injure. "I'm sorry, Kurosaki…" he said as he released the shot.

Ichigo was rushing him and there should have been no way that the arrow would miss. Still, Ishida gasped as Ichigo avoided the bolt and closed the distance to the Quincy. All Ishida was able to do to protect himself was raise his bow up between them. Ichigo's sword crashed into the spirit bow and knocked Ishida out of the sky, sending him slamming into the ground below.

Ishida coughed up a spurt of blood as he rolled over and forced himself to stand. _It's gone too far now. That was close to Kurosaki's true speed. I can't win this fight now._

He looked up and saw Ichigo coming in for another attack. The look on the Shinigami's face told Ishida that his friend no longer had any semblance of control. The only thing that looked right on that face were the brown eyes that screamed their pain at what was happening.

_He's still in there… I can't just leave him like this._

Ishida dove out of the path of the Zanpakuto, but took a shallow cut to the arm. He came up running, trying desperately to gain some distance and to give himself a moment to think.

_I can't take on Kurosaki, there is just no way_. Ishida thought. _My only chance is to take out the hollow before Kurosaki kills me_. He glanced over at the hollow but knew that it would have already figured that out too. It was going to use Ichigo to keep Ishida too busy to be able to fire a shot at it, and too far away to do much of anything else.

He was going to have to convince the hollow that he wasn't enough of a threat to bother keeping him away and at the same time, make it appear that it was Ichigo that was driving him closer. Glancing over his shoulder again at Ichigo, Ishida thought to his friend, _I'm sorry, Kurosaki, but I am going to have to hurt both of us for this to work._

Ishida slightly adjusted his direction and speed so that Ichigo made it to him, but not making it obvious that it had happened on purpose. As Ichigo went into an attack, Ishida didn't avoid it. He managed to position himself so that the natural attack would be to knock him in the direction of the hollow.

Ichigo's sword swung past Ishida, but his arm lashed out, throwing an elbow punch to Ishida's face and tossing him through the air. _This has got to be one of my worst plans_. Ishida thought as he painfully picked himself up off the ground. Blood was running down into his left eye from the hit above it. His ears were still ringing from the blow even as he leapt out of the way of Ichigo's follow up kick.

_Well, I'm closer, but not quite in range yet_. Ishida quickly recalculated Ichigo's next attack and he didn't like the calculations he came up with. With a resigned sigh, he accepted that this one was going to be a costly blow.

He ducked Ichigo's first swing and then twisted so that the return strike found him. The sword knocked him back, slicing across his chest and brining him just a bit closer to the hollow. Ishida doubled over as he slid backward from the blow but he didn't try to stop his momentum as he normally would have had he had any intention on striking back at Ichigo.

He grasped the slice across his chest with his left hand as he struggled to stand up straight again. His chest was heaving as he gasped for breath and didn't have to work very hard to appear convincing that he was reaching his limit.

The hollow behind him was laughing as Ichigo walked slowly through the plumes of dust towards Ishida. "It has been a long time since I've faced a Quincy," the hollow said. As it spoke behind him, Ishida saw that it was also speaking through Ichigo.

"The interesting thing with Quincy is how they absorb spirit energy from the very air around them to use as weapons."

Ishida backed up a step from the advancing Ichigo. He had already taken too much damage for this hollow to pull out another trick. He had to hurry up and enact his plan before it was able to do whatever it was babbling about.

Ishida used his Hirenkyaku to get to the other side of Ichigo and then pulled out one of his Seele Schneiders and fired it at him. The Shinigami avoided the bolt with ease and brought down another blow with his sword on the archer.

Ishida had managed to deflect the blow with another Seele Schneider as he rolled out of the way. Still, the deflected Zanpakuto raked down his left arm, leaving a trail of blood. Ishida didn't even bother to look back but quickly kept going, leading Ichigo to the next location.

_At this rate, he's going to hack me to pieces before I can get this set up. It's easy enough to direct his moves, but they are too powerful for me to keep taking these hits._

Ishida stopped then and set the Seele Schneider that he was still gripping to the bow and took aim at Ichigo. But, as he had predicted, the possessed Shinigami overtook him before he was able to fire. With a dive, Ishida managed to completely avoid Ichigo's attack, sliding under his aim and coming up on the other side.

He had a clear shot at Ichigo's exposed back and a tiny voice in his head was telling him to take it. But instead, in the process of bringing his bow back up, Ishida pretended to trip, firing the bolt up into the air and missing Ichigo entirely.

The hollow laughed at him through Ichigo. "Is that all the better you can do? You had such a clear shot that went wasted! How could you even think that you stood a chance against your friend?"

Ichigo launched into an attack again. Ishida was forced to take a few more minor hits to keep Ichigo driving him on the path that he needed. When he had finally reached where he needed to be, his white uniform was beginning to appear as if bleach had been spilled on a crimson one.

_I still have three more to go… How am I going to keep this up?_ He pulled out the next Seele Schneider but kept it in hand for Ichigo's next attack. _Duck under, carry through, pull the shot, make it look as if I'm off balance… I can do this…_ he coached himself.

Just as he was ducking under Ichigo's blade, he sensed a slight change from the Shinigami. But he had already set his path in motion and there was no backing out of the steps at that point. As Ishida carried through and began to bring the bolt up to his bow, Ichigo suddenly shifted his weight, throwing his body into the Seele Schneider rather than passing by as Ishida had intended.

Ishida watched in horror as his blade sliced across Ichigo's abdomen, tearing the black fabric and biting deeply into the flesh. He pulled back on the blade, trying to minimize the damage, but everything had all happened too fast to be able to do much good.

When their momentum ended, the two boys were left facing each other. A drop of blood dripped off the tip of the Seele Schneider that Ishida had brought to his bow. He hadn't even thought as he did so; that had been the intended motion and so now he was standing there, bow loaded and aimed at Ichigo.

Ichigo had his left hand partially covering the left side of his face as his wound poured blood that soaked into his Shinigami uniform and was beginning to pool around his feet.

Ishida narrowed his eyes at his friend. Ichigo wasn't back in control, but he was fighting it again. _Damn it Kurosaki,_ Ishida thought at him. _I'll ask you if I want your help!_

It was infuriating how easy it would be for Ishida to end this right now. Ichigo was still struggling for control but it was obvious he was not going to win. But that meant that at the moment he couldn't defend himself from such a close range attack. It also meant that such a close range attack could easily kill the Shinigami. Not seeing any other choice, Ishida pulled back and let the Seele Schneider launch uselessly into the air.

"Interesting," the hollow said, no longer speaking through Ichigo. "So you think that your friend may have gained control again?" it asked.

Ishida breathed an internal sigh of relief that it still wasn't able to spot what he was doing. "Your friend is tricky, hiding something like this from me," the hollow continued.

Ichigo slowly shifted his hand downward and Ishida could see a hint of red and white had hardened around his left eye. Ichigo had used his hollow powers to fight back.

"Too bad for you, Quincy, that you didn't kill him when you had the chance. Now that I've found these new powers, they belong to me as well. He won't be able…"

The voice shifted from the hollow to Ichigo, this time in the slightly distorted tones of his hollow form. "…to take control again."

The mask fully materialized on Ichigo's face, changing those brown eyes that had never lost their Ichigo spark, to yellow. Anything recognizable of his friend was gone now. And things had just gotten a whole lot more difficult.

Before Ishida even had a moment to run again, Ichigo was suddenly face to face with him. There was no avoiding or countering the blow that followed. It had been merely a slap, but with the amount of speed and power behind it, Ishida was lucky that it didn't break his neck.

He was thrown across the area as blood burst forth from his nose and mouth. He knew several bones in his face had just been shattered and it was all he could do to cling onto consciousness as his body impacted with the ground.

His vision dimmed around the edges with the impact, but he was not going to give in, not now. Weakly he took another Seele Schneider and brought it to his bow. Taking a deep breath, he managed to sit up enough to find out where he was. He gave a slight gasp when he realized that he wasn't very far at all from where he needed to be.

He jumped up and shifted to a short burst of Hirenkyaku. He was rapidly losing energy but he was so close now. He pushed himself to just keep moving before he came to a wobbly halt where he needed to be and stabbed the blade into the ground. But before he was able to make it to even pull out his next blade Ichigo was suddenly on top of him.

The hollowfied Ichigo drove Ishida's body back into the ground, pinning his arms to his chest. "It has been a long time since I've gotten to play with a Quincy," the hollow spoke through Ichigo. "It is always interesting to watch the results when their bodies take in too much reishi."

As the hollow spoke, Ichigo began to glow with black and red reiatsu. Ishida gasped as he realized that, instead of leaking the power into the air, it was being directed into his own body. As a Quincy, he was susceptible to an attack like this because it was natural for them to take in the surrounding energy and then release it back out into the world. But with his arms pinned like this and no way of blocking the pressure that was being driven into him, the power was only going to build up, burning him from the inside out.

Even as Ishida put all of this together, he could feel the power beginning to crack his skin along his arms, trying to find an exit. He gasped in pain, trying to hold back a scream. "So, Quincy, how much power can you hold before you burst? With all this energy I have to draw from, I'm sure this won't take much longer."

Ishida stifled a moan as the cracks along his arms widened and spread. The power was demanding a release now. He could feel it tearing him apart. "Kuro…saki," he gasped, looking up at the hollow face that hovered just inches from his own. "The… blade…"

Ishida was forced to throw his head back then and scream as the pain was far too much for him to internalize anymore. His entire body felt as if it was on fire, crying out for some way to release the energy… any kind at this point would do.

Suddenly a searing pain erupted through his abdomen that over rode all of the other agony. He vomited a fountain of blood into the air, wondering for a moment if he had literally burst apart. But, even though the pain in his gut persisted, he realized that the rest of his body was no longer on fire. Cracking an eye open, he saw that Ichigo had pulled the Seele Schneider from the ground beside him and plunged it into his stomach.

The blade was drawing the excess spirit energy from him and diffusing it into the ground below. It seemed that it was possible that Ichigo had understood his message and acted in the only way that his hollow controller would allow. Perhaps Ichigo couldn't control, but he might be able to 'suggest,' actions that weren't contrary to the hollow's goals.

_Thank you, Kurosaki_. Ishida thought to the Shinigami. It may prove to still be fatal, but it at least bought Ishida a few more minutes. There was only one more blade to plant.

Ichigo had pulled back just enough to plunge the blade into him that Ishida could move his arms again. Pushing all the pain and fatigue aside, Ishida pulled out his last Seele Schneider and launched it into the air, using his will to direct it to the final location.

"What are you doing, boy?" the hollow asked, finally realizing that something was not right.

Just then, the final blade drove into the ground, setting off the binding spell that held the hollow in the center of the pentagram. Ishida jerked opened his mouth in a silent scream with the power spike that flowed through his body. Never before had he actually been a part of this technique, but now his own body was tied into the net of spirit energy.

He could feel his consciousness beginning to fade so, with a sigh, he decided that he simply didn't have the time or energy to explain everything to the hollow before setting off the explosion that would kill it.

"Ish…ida," Ichigo said as his hollow mask melted away and the horrified face of his friend appeared, staring down at him. Apparently the net prevented the hollow from controlling the Shinigami anymore.

"Kurosaki, you have to get away. I'm going to destroy that bastard now…" Ishida breathed, feeling his awareness slipping away by the moment as he weakly reached into his uniform and pulled out a Ginto tube.

"Ishida, don't... I just need you to hold it for a while longer. I can take care of it. You don't need to sacrifice yourself for me!"

"Kurosaki…" he sighed. "I can't hold it any longer, you have to move."

Ichigo stared down at his friend, stricken with grief. "Please, move. I don't want to take you with me," Ishida said softly to him.

Ichigo narrowed his eyes and then stood up. "I'm not leaving you. Either you hold that thing a few more moments, or you blow it up, taking me with… either way, I will not leave you."

With that he turned around and faced the hollow. "Bankai!" he cried, changing into his Bankai form and simultaneously bringing out his mask. Ishida closed his eyes and tried to hold on for just a few more moments. Either way, he was going to die. He realized this. But if Ichigo was going to be stubborn, Ishida was going to do what he could to keep from taking Ichigo with him.

It was all over in a few seconds. Ichigo launched himself at the hollow, blasting it into dust with his Getsuga Tensho. The moment the hollow was gone Ichigo dismissed his mask again and flashed stepped to Ishida's side. He bent down and pulled the blade from his friend's stomach, causing the entire pentagram of power to collapse.

"Ishida," Ichigo said, reaching down and placing a hand over the wound in the Quincy's stomach. "Hold on, Ishida."

The Quincy cracked his eyes open and looked up at his orange haired friend. "Wait… Ichigo…" he gasped as he realized that they had been forgetting something. He struggle to reach over and grab the Seele Schneider that was no lying on the ground beside him. He stared over Ichigo's head as the dust that had been the hollow a moment ago started to rush back together behind the Shinigami.

"It's all right, Ishida," Ichigo tried to tell him. "He's gone."

Ishida's hand wrapped around the hilt of his bladed weapon. Instantly the spirit blade activated and he weakly raised it. Ichigo looked down at him, wondering what in the world he was doing with the threat gone and being already so weakened and injured.

"Down," Ishida whispered up to him as he flipped his wrist so that he was holding the blade like a javelin aimed towards Ichigo. The Shingami gasped and ducked down just as Ishida pulled back as best he could and threw the weapon spiraling point first through the space where Ichigo's head had just been.

Ichigo turned and looked and watched as the blade went a short distance further before it struck the reformed hollow in the center of the forehead, shattering the mask. But Ichigo didn't have a chance to wonder about what just happened as he heard Ishida give a gasp and his hand fall against the pavement.

"Ishida!" Ichigo cried as he turned back around and looked down at his rapidly fading friend.

"I'm sorry, Ichigo," he said weakly. "I should have come up with a better plan."

"You're damn right, you stupid Quincy. Now hold on, I'll get you help."

Ishida coughed another spurt of blood and blinked back at Ichigo. "It's too late, Ichigo. I…"

"Shut up!" Ichigo cried, "Shut up, Uryuu! You know I'll never be able to live with myself having your death on my head! If you were ever my friend, you'll hold on!" Ichigo reached down and wrapped his arms around the bloody Ishida and lifted him off the ground. He turned to use his Shunpo to bring them to Urahara's but as he turned, he saw Rukia standing there, blocking his path, with a pained expression on her face.

"Rukia, please move," he said to her.

She stayed completely still, staring up at Ishida's bloody body with a look of hopelessness written across her face.

"Ichigo…" she whispered.

"Rukia! Step aside!" he yelled at her.

"Ichigo," Ishida whispered in his arms. "Don't blame yourself. I was protecting… my best… friend…" The last word came out as a sigh. Ishida's eyes rolled back into his head as his whole body went limp.

"Uryuu!" Ichigo cried, lowering him back to the ground. "URYUU!" Ichigo voice rang out cutting through the air over Karakura town.

A/N: Oh dear, I tried to explain things to Yoruichi but the only thing that has kept her from actually killing me is that I told her so many would be disappointed if I wasn't able to finish my story. She's not sure she believes me though and is going to be looking at how many reviews I get this week. Please, review so that she doesn't kill me!


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Well, I'm still alive even if I didn't get very many reviews this past week, so thank you for convincing Yoruichi that you actually like me. Unfortunately I'm not sure how long after this story is finished that I'll stay that way… but for now let's move on. How about we hear from Rukia this week.

Rukia cartwheels onto the stage, "Hewo!" she exclaims as she pops up.

I frown at her a second before asking, "Um, you're not Rukia, are you?"

"Nope, it's me, Chappy! Rukia-san had to go take care of a hollow."

"Oh, well, I was kind of hoping to hear from Rukia this week. Do you know how long she'll be?"

Chappy grabs my arm and pulls it behind my back. "What, you don't want me to take her pwace?"

"Ow! Yes, sorry, I would love you to disclaim today, Chappy!"

Chappy lets go of my arm and smiles before saying, "Mystica does not own Bweach!"

I rub my sore arm while walking of f stage muttering, "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…"

Chapter 6

Ishida slowly opened his eyes. His entire body burned with pain from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. There wasn't an inch of him that didn't ache in some way or another. "Is this hell?" he whispered into the air.

A soft, slightly familiar chuckle drifted down to him. "Not quite, though I imagine that the way you feel, you'll probably wish that you were there rather than here for a few days." Urahara's head drifted into view then, revealing that he had been the one speaking to him.

"I'm… not dead?" Ishida muttered as he brought a hand to his face and touched it. He paused a moment when he realized that his arm was completely wrapped in bandages. With a sigh, his fingers sought to push up his glasses reflexively, but found that they weren't on his face.

"No, you're not dead," Urahara said with a smile as he reached down and picked Ishida's glasses up from the floor and placed them in his hand. The Quincy put them on his face and adjusted them into position before allowing his hand to drop weakly to his side.

"How…?" he muttered.

"I won't lie to you, it was pretty close…" Urahara said as his smiling face turned serious. "If Kuchiki-san hadn't come to towards the end of your fight and realized that she needed to get help, we wouldn't have gotten to you in time."

"Kuchiki-san?" Ishida mumbled. "She kept Kurosaki from leaving with me. I thought she was just trying to get him to accept that I wasn't going to make it."

"She was keeping Ichigo from running off before we got there. She showed up here and hurriedly explained what was happening and then left while I found Tessai. We followed just behind her."

Ishida sighed as he allowed his weary eyes to close again. "I thought I was going to die," he said.

A new voice spoke up as the door slid open. "But we weren't ready to let you go." It was Ichigo. The teenager came inside and knelt beside his friend. He was back in his human body, dressed in jeans and tee shirt.

"Ichi…Kurosaki…" Ishida said.

"Can it, Uryuu," Ichigo said as he looked down at the Quincy. "If it wasn't for you, I would be dead now, or possibly have killed everyone I care for. I think we're beyond this formal crap by this point."

"I think I'll let Tessai know that you're awake, Ishida-san," Urahara said, dismissing himself. He paused for a moment in the doorway, looking back at the scene of the two boys. A brief flash of what could only be interpreted as anger crossed the ex-Shinigami's face before he slipped out, closing the door quietly behind him

The two boys were silent for a while after Urahara left. Finally Ichigo broke the silence. "You really are stupid you know…"

Ishida looked up at him and said, "I'm stupid? I had everything under control until you pulled your hollow out."

"I was trying to keep from killing you," Ichigo snapped in response.

"You did a real good job of that too," Ishida said sarcastically.

They both glared at each other in silence for a few moments before Ichigo cracked a smile first, "Yeah, might have messed up a bit there." He brought his hand up to rub the back of his head as he looked away from Ishida.

Ishida sighed and closed his eyes, "And I might have overestimated my own endurance."

They were silent again for a very long stretch. Ichigo shifted from his kneeling position to sitting cross-legged before he spoke again. "Uryuu… I'm sorry…"

"It wasn't your fault," Ishida said, not even bothering to open his eyes for his reply.

Ichigo shook his head and said, "I nearly killed you, Uryuu. I know it was the hollow that was controlling me, but… I used to think that I was stronger than that. I thought that I would never allow something like that to ever happen. But this was the second time… I keep hurting you, Uryuu…"

"It was your strength that the hollow was using against you," Ishida explained. "The more you fought it, the more powerful it became. It really had a perfect hold. Fighting it fed it power, making it stronger. If you didn't fight, then it would just continue to control you. Holding it off as long as you did was impressive, and taking control again, even for a second, was probably more than anyone else who had ever encountered it had ever managed."

"Still… It wasn't another hollow that hurt you before, it was me…"

"That was not you!" Ishida snapped at him, opening his eyes again. "Back then, you had died, Ichigo. The hollow had completely taken you over. You didn't even know what was happening, which in many ways was better than what just happened." He paused and then closed his eyes as he continued. "I knew what I was getting into. It didn't take me long to figure out that there was nothing you were going to be able to do to stop it. I was the one that put myself in that position, I could have run and brought in help, but I thought I could handle it… I thought that if I just planned everything just so, I could bring you back…"

"You did, in the end." Ichigo said softly. "You should have just killed me, Uryuu… You missed so many opportunities… I even tried to do it myself. But you wouldn't give up on me… You pulled it off, Uryuu. Where so many who have gone against me have failed, you won. You more than proved your Quincy pride."

Ishida sighed, not wanting to be reminded of that day that he had challenged Ichigo to prove that a Quincy was better than a Shinigami. He had been the stupid on that day too.

"Idiot," Ishida muttered. "Would you have killed me had the roles been reversed?"

Ichigo didn't answer because they both already knew what it would be.

Ishida sighed when Ichigo decided not to answer him and said, "I am curious though. When you stabbed me…" he noticed Ichigo wince slightly at the mention of that must he pressed on. "…Did you really have nothing to do with that? Because really, that's what saved my life right then."

Ichigo looked away as a deeper frown pulled at his lips. "I don't know," he said very softly. "I may have… I really don't know. All I know is I was trying to think of some way to get your blade to you like to said… It was the hollow after that."

They both sat in silence again for a moment.

"One thing I don't understand…" Ichigo said softly after a moment.

"Just one thing?" Ishida muttered. But Ichigo ignored his dig.

"How come I couldn't kill the hollow?"

Ishida sighed in frustration before he answered, "Because you're a Shinigami… you don't actually kill hollows. You purify them and send them on to Soul Society or hell depending on where they were supposed to go. Those paths are sealed right now so it couldn't actually leave."

Ichigo felt pretty dumb as he listened to the explanation because he had said the same thing to Kon only the day before. He just hadn't really stopped and thought about what that really meant.

"So really, you were the only one that could have stopped it…" Ichigo said as he looked back at Ishida.

The Quincy didn't think that he needed to reply to that and simply laid back and closed his weary eyes again. Ichigo stood up and made his way to the door. Ishida just lay there, listening to him leave, not knowing what to say, if he should even say anything else. "Thank you, Uryuu," Ichigo said from the doorway. "Thank you for being there for me, and pulling me back."

"The same to you, Ichigo," Ishida whispered back as the Shinigami was sliding the door closed again. "Thank you for not letting me go…" he whispered to the empty room before falling asleep again.

XXX

Urahara didn't pause in his determined path as he walked into the living room and called to Yoruichi, "Follow me." The black cat looked up from where she had been curled up napping and followed Urahara out of the room and down into the basement. They descended through a hole in the blue sky into the practice grounds below in silence.

Yoruichi could feel the anger radiating off of her friend as he led her across the practice field to a point that she had expected him to take her. He stood in between two tall wooden pillars and stopped.

Urahara turned and face Yoruichi with a fire behind his eyes. "I need you to take a message to that demon that they call Captain-commander…" he said, trying and failing to hide the anger in his voice.

"And what message might that be?" Yoruichi asked in her very masculine feline voice. She sat down on the ground and looked up at Urahara expectantly.

"You let him know that I understand the need to test the humans… But he has gone too far. Ishida-san was very nearly killed, and I will not stand by and watch these kids torn apart over some test." He spoke all of this in a quiet tone as if it wasn't of great importance to him. But Yoruichi heard the utter rage that underlined each and every one of her friend's words.

Yoruichi yawned and stretched forward with her front paws in an incredibly cat like manner before walking forward and standing at the edge where the gate would be. "This isn't like you, Kisuke," she said softly without looking at him. "I thought that you had learned long ago never to become too attached to someone because you never knew when you might need to use them for your own purposes…"

There was a moment of tense silence before Urahara replied softly. "I did learn that lesson… but, like you said, I learned it a long time ago. I have learned something else since then… Since I met Kurosaki Ichigo and his friends… I have learned that there are those that are worth the risk of protecting and these kids are definitely worth that risk." With that he turned around and stabbed his cane into the ground and twisted it. The gates suddenly appeared and slid open. "It is going to be a one way trip this time, Yoruichi-san," he told her.

"You're going to need me on this one, Kisuke," she said to him.

"Don't say that… not like that," he said, not looking at her. "That only implies to me that you know more than you have told me… that you have been holding something back from me and I don't want to hear that. Take my message please, Yoruichi-san."

Yoruichi nodded her head once and looked at Urahara. "Congratulations, Kisuke. This test was not only for them, but for you as well… and I am glad to say, that you have passed."

With that the cat turned and leapt through the gate. Urahara stood dumbfounded as he watched the gates slide close behind the black feline. He wasn't sure how he felt about learning that he was also a part of this test, or even if he was glad that he had apparently passed it.

"Well," he breathed as he put a hand on top of his hat and tipped it down a little further over his eyes. "It appears that she really has been keeping secrets." He sighed and turned away from the pillars slowly. "Why would you do that to me? Why would you do that to them?" He walked slowly back up the stairs, going over the new pieces of the puzzle that he had been given that day.

XXX

_"Ichigo," Ishida whispered in his arms. "Please, don't blame yourself. I was protecting… my best… friend…" Ishida's eyes rolled back into his head at that point as his whole body went limp._

_ "Uryuu!" Ichigo cried, lowering him back to the ground. "URYUU!" Ichigo voice rang out cutting through the air over Karakura town like a knife._

It was then that Urahara and Tessai sudden appeared on the scene. Urahara took one glance at Ishida's limp body and turned to Tessai. The former Kido corps captain had already assessed the situation and took action. Stepping up close to the two boys, he clapped his hands together and slowly pulled them apart. A column of green light spread between his palms as a golden-green light began to radiate around Ishida, Ichigo, and himself.

In a brilliant flash, all three of them suddenly vanished from the hilltop. Rukia gasped when her eyes cleared and she saw that her friends were no longer there. "What…?" she began.

"Tessai has stopped time and teleported them back to the shop," Urahara said as he began to walk away, examining the area of the battle.

"He… how?"

Urahara didn't bother to answer her. He had paused several meters away, seemingly staring down at the ground in front of him. He was completely motionless, holding his hat on his head with his left hand as the breeze ruffled his cloak around him.

Suddenly his left hand dropped and grabbed the wooden shaft of his cane as he spun around. He pulled his Zanpakuto free of the cane as he shouted, "Sing, Benihime!" He pointed the tip of his sword into the air behind and far above and a blast of red shot out and rocketed skyward.

Rukia gasped, wondering what on earth had possessed Urahara to do that. She watched as the red streaked upward and suddenly formed into a very small hexagonal shaped barrier. The barrier abruptly stopped its forward motion, as it seemed to lodge in a tiny hole in the sky.

"Who are you?" Urahara said as his eyes darkened and narrowed in on the fissure that his shield was holding open.

A smooth voice seemed to drift back to them as if was riding the breeze. "This world is full of interesting beings I see. We'll be seeing each other very soon…" With a sudden snap, Urahara's barrier broke, allowing the tear in the air to quickly seal itself shut again.

Urahara stood for a while, staring up at the space where he had just barely glimpsed a pair of bright blue eyes peering at him from behind his own barrier. "What was that?" Rukia asked in hushed tones.

"The root," Urahara muttered and then turned and began to walk away. Rukia watched him a moment before he suddenly disappeared, having switched into Shunpo and left the hilltop.

She shook her head and the followed after him back to the shop.

XXX

_Who was that?_ Urahara wondered as he thought back to those eyes he had seen. He had retired to his lab and was currently sitting at his desk. _Was it really the one behind all of this? Or was it someone who had been observing that bloody test?_

He shook his head to himself. He knew that he had never felt something like that before when those eyes had been on his back. It could only be the new entity that was messing around with the currents of power.

"What is that old man thinking?" Urahara said with a sigh as he leaned forward on his desk, catching his head in his arms. "This is no time to be testing these kids… not when something so powerful is messing around with nature itself."

XXX

Inoue had been lying in bed, wondering if she should even bother getting up that day. Another weekend and another beautiful day, but she didn't see the point to it. She sighed as she rolled over on her mat and pulled her covers tighter around her shoulders. "Kurosaki-kun," she muttered in a half asleep voice.

"Still going on about that boy?" Shuno's voice asked as the fairy like creature suddenly appeared hovering above her head.

"Please, Shuno, I don't wish to talk about it right now…" Inoue muttered as she turned again to lie on her back and look directly up at the fairy.

"You need to talk to him," Shuno persisted. "It's the only way to clear this whole thing up."

Lily suddenly appeared beside Shuno and said, "What good will talking do? It's obvious that Ichigo would rather be with Rukia. You saw the way that he was holding her yesterday. I say just forget him and move on with your life."

"Please," Inoue said to her flowers. Tears were beginning to build in her eyes. "Please, I don't wish to talk right now."

"I keep telling you, woman," Tsubaki said as he flashed around her head. "Eliminate the competition; then there wouldn't be a problem anymore."

"Please! Stop it!" she cried as she flipped over on her stomach and threw the covers over her head.

A sudden knocking sounded at her door. The fairies all popped back into their places on her hairpins as Inoue pulled the covers off and woozily got out of bed. "Who is it?" she asked as she tugged at her sleep shirt, feeling rather self-conscious that it was past noon and she hadn't even gotten dressed yet.

"Inoue-san, it's Ururu…" a tiny, timid voice responded

"Ururu-chan?" she replied, wondering why she would be coming to her apartment. She quickly crossed over to the door and opened it. Ururu's unimposing figure was standing there, looking up at her with large eyes.

"Inoue-san," she said softly to her. "There was a fight… Ishida-san has been injured and I was sent to ask if you might be able to help heal him…"

"Help…" she muttered, staring at the little girl as if she didn't comprehend what was going on. "What…is he all right?"

"The boss says he's fine for now but it's going to take a while for him to be completely better. Urahara-san wants Tessai-san's help on another project, so he won't have a lot of time to help heal Ishida-san."

"Y…yes, of course!" she said as she stepped back. "If you will wait a moment, I just need to change." She glanced down at herself and tried to keep from blushing. She quickly turned and ran for her room, closing the door behind her.

She was only in there a few moments before she immerged wearing a skirt and three quarter length sleeved shirt. "Alright, let's go, Ururu-chan," she said and the two of them hurried back to the shop.

XXX

When Ishida awoke again, he found himself looking up through a golden haze. As he blinked, he made out Inoue's worried expression just beyond the yellow barrier that she had placed over him. "Inoue-san…" he muttered.

She started and looked down at him. Her hands were hovering over him, directing her concentration into the healing field that she had created. "Ishida-kun," she replied as she dismissed the field. The two fairies circled once and then returned to her hairpins.

Ishida realized that the constant entire body ache that had followed him into his sleep had disappeared. He still felt horribly weak and could feel the stabbing pain in his stomach where he had been skewered as well as the throbbing from several other deeper wounds. Still, the ache that had covered every inch of him, no doubt from the overload of reiatsu that he had received, had finally subsided.

"Thank you, Inoue-san," he sighed. "I feel much better."

Inoue sat back and looked down at the floor between herself and Ishida. "I'm glad, Ishida-kun." She said softly. "I…I can't heal everything at once. Tessai says that it would be too much for your system and that it would be dangerous for me as well."

Ishida closed his eyes and leaned back into his pillow. "Just what you have done is enough to feel worlds better. Thank you, Inoue-san."

When she didn't reply, he cracked an eye open and looked at her. She was still sitting there, head down, looking at nothing. A slightly sad, slightly hurt feeling seemed to play across her expression, but Ishida still couldn't quite place what it was. "Inoue-san…" he said hesitantly. There was no doubt that there had been something going on with her lately and he felt that he ought to try and help her, especially considering how much she was helping him now. His worry over her was overweighing his sense that some things should be kept private. But he wasn't very good at this sort of thing and wasn't sure how to bring it up. "Inoue-san," he tried again. "Are you… are you all right?"

She gave a slight gasp and looked at him, quickly dismissing her melancholy look. "What a strange question to ask, Ishida-kun," she said with a smile that only looked slightly forced. "You are the one that was hurt today. I have had nothing happen to me…"

The way the last words fell from her lips, Ishida knew that they hinted at the true problem, though what she meant by that, he couldn't tell. "It's just…" he said slowly. "It's just, for a moment there, you looked so sad… And you haven't been yourself for several days now."

Inoue was about to try and make up another excuse but Ishida interrupted her. "I understand if it's something you don't want to talk about, Inoue-san. I just thought I'd let you know that I don't mind if you do… wish to talk, that is."

Inoue stared blankly at him a moment before she politely bowed her head, "Thank you, Ishida-kun. But you are right; I don't wish to speak of it right now."

Ishida nodded once before saying, "As you wish, Inoue-san. But it seems I won't be going anywhere any time soon, so you will know where to find me if you change your mind."

Inoue gave him a slight smile as she voiced a slight, "Mm," and nodded once in return. "I will be back again tomorrow to heal you some more," she told him as she stood up.

"I…I look forward to it," he replied.

She smiled shyly at him and then slipped out of the room, closing the door softly behind her.

XXX

Tessai entered Urahara's lab quietly and looked on at the napping Urahara. He was sprawled across his desk, having fallen asleep there. Tessai shook his head at the former captain and turned to leave. "We have very big problems on our hands," Urahara's voice spoke.

Tessai paused and looked back at Urahara over his shoulder. "Boss?"

Urahara sat up and then stretched his arms above his head before standing and slowly walked over to Tessai. "I think I have an idea of who is behind this," Urahara said softly as he placed his hand on his hat while he walked, clogs clicking on the ground with each step. "And I know now why it is Kurosaki and his humans friends that are going to have to deal with this… as well as myself."

"Who is it?" Tessai asked.

Urahara pulled his hand down and looked up at Tessai from under the brim of hat. "Exactly who, I don't know… But I am fairly certain that we are dealing with someone from the royal family."

XXX

Ishida was awake and feeling more than a little cooped up by the time Inoue showed up the next day. He looked up as he heard the door slide open and Inoue poked her head inside. "Ishida-kun?" she called softly.

"I'm awake, Inoue-san," he told her. She came inside and closed the door behind her.

Ishida had taken his glasses off again while he had been sleeping and had not had a reason to put them back on again. So his vision was not quite that clear when she entered. But for a second before he had his glasses on again, he had thought that Inoue's hair didn't look quite right.

But by the time he had the eyewear on she looked just like she always did. Her hair was slightly tucked back in the flower hairpins and she was standing there offering him one of her warm smiles. "You are looking better, Ishida-kun," she said as she came over and knelt beside him.

He glanced down at his arms that had now had their bandages removed. There were still cracks and lines running down them from the reiatsu overload he had received the day before, but they were healing and no longer bleeding. He did still have a bandage wrapped tightly around his head though and a few more plastered to his left cheek where Ichigo in hollow form had slapped him.

The bones in his face were still quite tender, but were no longer in fragments. He still felt horrible, but he wasn't as completely depleted as he had been the day before. The main complaint he had was the stab wound through his stomach. Tessai had managed to heal the organs that had been damaged and close the wound, but there was still a lot of muscle damage and trauma around the area that was going to take longer to heal. As it was, talking, eating, sitting up without assistance, even breathing too deeply, would bring on fresh waves of pain from that wound.

He silently sighed to himself when he thought about it. As painful and annoying as that wound was right now, it was the reason that he was still alive. If Ichigo hadn't managed to gain enough control to stab him when he did, Ishida would have surely been killed from the overload of reiatsu that had been forced inside of him without the option of release.

"Yes, I suppose I am feeling a little better," he replied to Inoue.

She smiled slightly at him before touching her hairpins and summoning her healing pair out. Ishida leaned back and closed his eyes as the golden glow surrounded his body. He could feel more of the injuries slowly healing. A tiny portion of the pain he was in lessoned, leaving him feeling just a little bit more relaxed.

He was surprised when he suddenly heard the sound of the door to his room sliding shut. He opened his eyes and found that he must have fallen asleep while Inoue was healing him because she was gone now.

Looking down at his arms, he saw that the wounds were now completely healed there, not leaving so much as a scar. He raised a hand to his face and gingerly touched the area where his bones had been shattered and found that the pain there was gone completely as well. He pulled the bandages off of his face and set them aside.

With a touch to his forehead though, he found that that was not completely healed as of yet. And though the pain had lessoned in his stomach, it was clear that that was also still mending.

He sighed. It seemed that he was going to have to be here for a few more days yet. That meant he was going to miss a few days of school. Not that he hadn't missed school before, but it was still a pain to catch back up with the work when it happened. _Maybe one of the others will think to bring my homework for me_, he thought before slipping into unconsciousness again.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Hello again all. Thank you for your reviews and for adding my story to your alerts. I hope that you all continue to enjoy this.

Now, for this week's disclaimer:

I step out on stage again. "Ok, I need a break from all of this violence. Who's someone that I'm probably not going to tick off? How about Captain Hitsugaya? Toshiro, would you please help me out today?"

He steps out and stands next to me, "Don't call me Toshiro…" he mutters with a slight tick above his eyebrow.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Captain Hitsugaya-sama, please, will you disclaim my story for me?"

"Mystica does not own Bleach."

After a slight pause, I ask "Is that all?"

"Isn't that what you wanted?"

"Well, yeah, it's just, most either have more to say or have some threat to make against me. I'm just a little surprised."

"Tch," he says and walks off stage.

I shrug before walking off after him as the curtain rises.

Chapter 7

Chad sat on a bench in the park by himself. He watched in silence as the people strolled by. It was yet again another beautiful day and many people were out trying to enjoy it. Chad didn't feel like enjoying it though.

He had heard about what had happened the day before with Ichigo and Ishida only a few hours ago. He didn't even know that anything was wrong until he showed up at Urahara's earlier to see if there had been any news on Renji.

He had been shocked to hear that Ishida had been gravely injured the day before and that Ichigo had been the one that had done it. Ichigo apparently had also taken a pretty nasty cut, but that had been taken care of fairly easily.

What bothered Chad the most was that he knew nothing about it. He had not sensed anything of the battle. No one thought to let him know and no one had thought to seek him out for help. He still didn't know more than the basics on what had happened; only that a hollow had managed to take control over Ichigo and it was Ishida that had managed to free him.

"Ichigo…" Chad muttered to himself as he leaned forward on the bench. He looked down at his right hand and then clenched it into a fist. "…How can I help protect you when I don't know where you are?"

Chad sighed and leaned back in the bench, closing his eyes to the bright sunlight from above.

"Oi, Chad!" a voice called to him.

Chad opened his eyes and saw Ichigo coming towards him. Chad couldn't help but feel slightly amused that he was just wondering where Ichigo was a moment ago. Of course he didn't let his amusement show at all.

"Ichigo," he called back and watched his orange haired friend approach. Ichigo came over and sat on the bench beside him.

Ichigo leaned back in the bench, tipping his head back and looked up at the blue sky. Both boys were silent for a while before Ichigo said, "I heard you were at Urahara's this morning."

"Yeah," Chad replied.

Ichigo sighed before saying, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was just too shaken to even think about what had happened, let alone talk about it."

Chad remained silent for a while before he said, "It was bad this time, wasn't it?"

Ichigo closed his eyes. He could see the nearly dead Ishida in his arms; blood every where, all of it caused by his own hands. "Yeah," he said quietly. "It was bad."

"Ichigo… I'm sorry I wasn't there…."

Ichigo opened his eyes and looked at Chad. His friend was sitting forward again, looking down at his hands. "It wasn't you fault, Chad," he told him.

Chad clenched his fists and replied, "I should have known… I swore to help you fight your battles and I should have known that you needed me."

Ichigo shook his head, "Chad, you can't be there for everything. I have managed to be in a position where I'm constantly in danger. When we made that pact, it was never under the assumption that either of us would be in that position. You can't be at my side all of the time."

Chad sighed and slowly unclenched his fist. "Ichigo, I swore to fight for you… no matter what, just as you swore the same to me. You have always held up your end, but I can't seem to hold up mine."

Ichigo looked at his friend. He noticed the gold coin that hung around Chad's neck and he remembered the time that they had made their pact. They had sworn to each other to protect what was important to the other. Ichigo knew then, as he did now, that that coin was important to Chad. But what else did he hold dear?

Then it hit him what else Chad felt needed to be protected. "I failed you yesterday, Chad," he told his friend.

Chad blinked and looked at Ichigo, not sure what he meant. "We swore to protect what each of us thought was important. I failed to protect two things that are important to you. Myself and Ishida…"

Chad looked on at Ichigo, not sure how to take that. Ichigo was right; both he and Ishida as well as Inoue and all of their other friends were important to him. But it wasn't Ichigo's fault that he and Ishida were hurt yesterday. And if Chad had been there, maybe they wouldn't have been.

Chad shook his head and stood up, looking distantly across the park. "You are important to me. But I still failed to be there for you both." He turned and walked away.

Ichigo watched Chad leave, wondering if there was anything that he should say or do to bring him back. But Ichigo was at a loss so he sat there, staring after his giant friend, wondering what would happen now.

XXX

It was after school the next day that Ishida saw Inoue again. This time he had been sitting up and reading before she entered. When he glanced up at her, he noticed that her hair wasn't quite right again. Now that he had his glasses on, he could tell that it was because her hairpins were missing.

Ishida closed his book and sat it down and looked back up at her, preparing to ask where the hairpins were, but he looked back just in time to see her pushing the second one back in place. "Inoue-san…?" he asked. "Why weren't you wearing your hairpins?"

She frowned a split second before smiling at him as if nothing was wrong. "It just slipped a little and I was fixing it was all."

Ishida knit his brow as he thought over what he had seen. He was sure that neither of her hairpins had been in place when she had entered the room. Come to think of it, that was what had appeared wrong with her hair yesterday too. He couldn't tell that they weren't present because he didn't have his glasses on, but her hair had been loose where it normally is pulled back.

"Inoue-san, you shouldn't go without them…" he said to her, not letting her get away with her excuses this time. "What if something happened? They are your only means of defense."

Inoue looked down at Ishida with a slightly detached face. Ishida recognized that look. It was the beginnings of a look that he had perfected over the years. It was the blank, non-expression that he used to distance himself from others and to hide his true feelings. He was surprised that whatever was bothering her had progressed to this level.

"Inoue-san, you need to talk to me," he told her. "You don't want to do this… Believe me, shutting out those around you will only hurt more in the long run."

She blinked at him in surprise. "How…?" she asked.

"Because I know that look. You haven't perfected it yet, and I pray that you of all people never do… But it is a look with which I am very familiar." He reached out his hand and gestured for her to sit beside him.

She stood there, hesitant for a moment before she took her place kneeling next to him. "Ishida-kun, I still do not wish to talk of it. Please, just let it be."

He shook his head, "No, I don't think that I can anymore, Inoue-san. You are doing yourself harm and putting yourself in danger. I cannot sit by in good conscience anymore."

Inoue blinked again and Ishida saw that a tear was beginning to form in the corner of her eye, but she was not allowing it to fall. "Ishida-kun," she said softly. "I'm a horrible person…"

He lay there dumbfounded a moment at the sound of her words. Inoue? A horrible person? He couldn't even fathom how it was that she had come to that conclusion.

His silence only seemed to prove to her that she was right. She swallowed hard and then moved to stand up. _I shouldn't be here_, she thought. _Tessai-san would be better at this anyway. No one here really needs me anymore._

As she started to stand, Ishida reached out his hand and grabbed her wrist. She gave a startled gasp at his touch and looked down at his hand for a moment in astonishment. "Inoue-san, how could you say such a thing?" he asked her softly.

"Because…" she replied, still staring at where his hand grasped her wrist. "Because it's true."

Ishida sighed and slowly released his grip. "If you truly believe that then I must apologize to you for not talking to you earlier."

She looked at him in shock. He returned her gaze with as much sincerity as he could place there. "I have seen you suffering for days now, Inoue-san. Maybe if I had confronted you earlier, you wouldn't have begun to believe that lie."

"Ishida-kun…" she said, the threatening tear finally began to slip down her face. "You don't know what I have been feeling… thinking… Ishida-kun." Inoue said as she sank down beside him. "I have been having awful thoughts that scare me."

Ishida was quiet a while before saying, "It's about Ichigo and Kuchiki-san, isn't it?"

Inoue gasped and looked as if she had just been found out for some horrible crime. "How…? How did you…?"

"It wasn't very hard," Ishida said, adjusting his glasses. "It has been clear for some time now how much you care for Ichigo. It is only natural that you begin to feel jealous of those that you feel have a closer relationship to him than you do."

Inoue's bottom lip began to quiver slightly before she suddenly emptied her face of emotions and looked down at her hands in her lap. "You are right, Ishida-kun. I have become jealous of Kuchiki-san. That is why I am such a horrible person. How can I be jealous of her and still call her my friend?"

"There is no reason for you to be jealous of Kuchiki-san, Inoue-san," Ishida told her flatly.

"But, Ishida-kun, it's pretty clear that Kurosaki-kun… that he… that he loves her…" she had a tough time keeping from breaking into tears again as she said that, but she manage to keep it inside this time.

"You're right, Inoue-san," Ishida replied. Inoue looked at him, knowing that he was right, but not expecting him to say as much. "He does love Kuchiki-san. He loves her just as much as he loves you."

She stared at him, not understanding what he was getting at. Ishida proceeded. "He loves Kuchiki-san the same as he loves his family, as he loves Sado, as he loves me… That is all that Ichigo has for any of us, love."

"But Ishida-kun… that's not what I meant."

"I know what you meant Inoue-san, but I don't think you understand Ichigo. I don't know if he is capable of giving any more love to one of his friends over another. He already cares too deeply for all of us to be able to invest anything more in just one individual. You may feel that you love Ichigo, and he is always going to love you back… but he cannot give you the level of love that you are looking for. It's just not in his nature."

Inoue looked at him for a long time, trying to take in all that he had told her. It seemed like such a strange notion, and yet, somehow, it fit. Ishida was right, Ichigo had proven many times how he loves her… and Rukia… and Sado… and Ishida…

But where did that leave her? What did that mean for her emotions?

"Inoue-san, you are not a horrible person for feeling jealous. It's natural for you to feel so. But you need to decide of what you are jealous. Are you jealous that it seems that Ichigo is closer to her than you? Or are you jealous that he shares his love with others?"

"I…" she said softly.

"You don't need to answer it now. But you do need to think about it, Inoue-san."

She nodded and closed her eyes. Another tear fell from one of them and splashed on the floor between them. After taking a deep breath, she reached up to her hairpins and called out the healing duo and set them to work.

Ishida lay there silently, looking up at her through the yellow barrier, wondering how he could have let her come to such pain. He had known that she was hurting, but he had thought that it was better to let her come to him, or someone, rather than confront her.

He shook his head as he realized how costly his mistake had been to Inoue. She was dangerously close to losing herself because of this. If she had succeeded in pushing everyone away and locking herself inside, she would no longer have been the Inoue that they all knew. She would have lost that spark in her that all of them had come to cherish.

XXX

Chad didn't show up for school that day. Ichigo sat in class, casting glances at Ishida and Chad's empty spots. Rukia wasn't there either; she had said that she was going to see if Urahara needed any help at the shop. Inoue was present, but she seemed to be pointedly ignoring him. She wouldn't glance in his direction and hardly spoke to him even when he asked her direct questions.

Ichigo couldn't help but feel as if things were crumbling around him. Ishida and Renji had nearly been killed, Inoue wouldn't speak to him, Chad didn't show up for school… What was happening to them?

He sighed and tried to force himself to actually pay attention to the lecture. Maybe it was better that he was putting distance from his friends, he thought. After seeing what had happened to Ishida, it seemed as if it would be far safer if they all just stayed away from him. Maybe that was the conclusion that Chad and Inoue had come to.

If it kept them safe, then Ichigo was willing to sacrifice their friendships.

XXX

Chad was not so willing, however. He just didn't know how to go about setting things right. He hadn't gone to school that day because he needed to take some time to figure out what to do.

He found that he had wandered back into the park as he tried to think how he could become stronger, or better, or something to be able to continue to be there for Ichigo. But the truth was, he had already gotten stronger… His training with Renji and the understanding that he had gained of his powers in Hueco Mundo had given him so much more power that it was almost scary at times.

Still, it didn't compete with Ichigo's strength. He couldn't compete with Ishida's mind or Inoue's healing. He was beginning to feel as if he didn't really have a place in their group anymore. He stopped walking and sighed. He was beginning to see that he was only getting in Ichigo's way when it came to their battles. He had worked so hard to be able to be of use, but in the end, he wasn't even there when Ichigo had needed him the most.

He needed to train, that was all there was to it. If he couldn't be of use to Ichigo the way that he is, then he had to get better. But the question was, where to train? He didn't want to go to Urahara's because then Ichigo and the others would find out. He couldn't go to the warehouse where he had first trained; he had seen to that when he nearly tore the place apart.

Thinking back to that time when Yoruichi had trained him and Inoue, Chad remembered that Ishida had been training at that time too. But he had trained by himself. It was a secluded place… now if only he could remember where it was…

XXX

The following day Inoue returned still carrying her hairpins rather than wearing them, but looking as if she was in a better mood than the day before. But she didn't give Ishida a chance to ask her any questions, but launched right into the schoolwork that she had brought for him.

After having gone through the math and science from the day, with which Ishida didn't have any problem, she pulled out a book for English. "Sensei chose the Shakespeare play that we're going to read," she said as she flipped open the book. "We started to go through it today, but I can't make much sense of it. We're supposed to read through the first scene for tomorrow."

Ishida reached out his hand and took the book from Inoue. He took a moment to translate the title in his head, "A Midsummer's Night Dream…" he said out loud. "At least it's one of the comedies," he said with a sigh.

"You've read Shakespeare?" Inoue asked, rather surprised.

He nodded, "A few, but not in English before. This is going to be pretty challenging stuff."

Inoue nodded, "I was kind of hoping you might be able to help me with it a little, Ishida-kun."

He nodded as he tried to sit up a little more to be able to read it better. He gasped as a sudden pain in his abdomen reminded him that he still had some healing to do. "Oh!" Inoue gasped. "I should get started on your healing first!"

He was going to tell her that it wasn't an issue, but then he moved again and realized that he would actually prefer to lessen that pain a little before he tried to concentrate on the old English play.

Inoue cast her healing field over Ishida and he nearly fell asleep again as she worked. This time, however, she let him know when she was finished. "Ishida-kun," she said softly to him. "Would you like to try and work on the play?"

He nodded and sat up, this time without as much pain. He picked the book up again and began to read through the cast list. Every now and then, Inoue would ask him what some of the stage directions and character relationships meant and he would try his best to explain it to her. Though he was having a bit of a hard time with it as well.

The time dragged by as they took turns reading the first act out loud to one another and then pausing and figuring out what each line actually meant. "You know I hear that this is hard stuff even for those that speak English," Ishida said after they finally worked out a rather lengthy passage. It had been between two lovers that were not permitted to be together because of her father and they decided to run away together anyway.

Now Inoue took the book back and began to read:

_Hermia: God speed fair Helena! whither away?_

_Helena: Call you me fair? that fair again unsay.  
>Demetrius loves your fair: O happy fair!<br>Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air  
>More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,<br>When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.  
>Sickness is catching: O, were favour so,<br>Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go;  
>My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,<br>My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.  
>Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,<br>The rest I'd give to be to you translated.  
>O, teach me how you look, and with what art<br>You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart._

Inoue stopped and a puzzled look crossed her face. After a moment she asked, "Hermia is in love with Lysander, right?"

Ishida nodded. Inoue continued, "But she's supposed to marry Demetrius, who loves her… But Helena loves Demetrius…?"

"That's my understanding," Ishida said, nudging his glasses again.

She seemed to sigh to herself as she said, "I think I see…"

Ishida narrowed his eyes and realized that she was seeing some of her own situation in these characters. At least, she could feel for Helena yearning to be more like Hermia in order to gain the attention of the one she loved.

"I think that's enough for now," he said, reaching out and taking the book from her hand.

She allowed him to take it and close it shut. She sat there a moment in silence. "Ishida-kun," she said after a while. "I have been thinking about what you told me yesterday."

He didn't say anything but waited for her to continue. "I… I think you're probably right about Kurosaki-kun… though I can't help but still feel jealous. But I think that I am more jealous that I can't be more of a help to Kurosaki-kun like Kuchiki-san is. I… I want to help him. I want to repay him for all that he has done for me."

"He wouldn't want that, Inoue-san," Ishida told her. "Ichigo would rather that you lived your life for yourself. That's why he works so hard to protect all of us, so we don't have to worry about things like that."

Inoue sat quietly looking at her hands, mulling this new tidbit over in her mind. "Do you think… Do you think…?" suddenly she broke off and stood up. "I have to go, Ishida-kun." She said quickly and before he could say anything, she had disappeared through the door.

XXX

"Boss," Tessai said as he entered Urahara's lab. "Inoue-san has just left again."

Urahara looked up from his desk where he had been busily scratching out some notes. "Did you send Ururu to watch her?" he asked.

Tessai nodded.

"Good. How has she been doing?" Urahara asked as he put his pen down and stretched.

"I believe she is doing better. Her reiatsu has calmed down significantly from the other day, though it is still a bit turbulent."

The ex-Shinigami nodded and said, "I'm not surprised. Whatever it is that she has been put through was meant to tear her apart." He sighed and stood up and walked over to another workbench. He began to pour different colored liquids, mixing them and then notating the results.

"It was a good idea having her work on Ishida-san's healing," Tessai said. "I am sure that he is the reason that she is calming down again."

Urahara nodded and spoke as he continued to work. "Yes, I do feel bad about using Ishida's condition in this way. After all, he could have been completely healed and better by now if we weren't forcing Inoue to take it slowly. But I believe that this is something that he would forgive us for."

Tessai nodded and then turned to leave. "Tessai," Urahara said softly, causing the man to pause and turn around.

"Have we heard anything about Sado-kun?"

"No," Tessai replied. "But I heard Inoue-san telling Ishida-kun that Sado-kun hasn't been to school the last two days."

Urahara sighed and set down the beaker that he had been working on. "So, it may have started then…"

"…It seems likely," Tessai said before leaving Urahara to his own thoughts.

He knew that he was supposed to stay out of it, but after what had happened to Ishida, he couldn't see how he could just sit back on this one. The problem was, he had a lot of research that he needed to be working on and Tessai was needed to keep an eye on Ishida. Ururu worked out quite well in keeping an eye on Inoue when she wasn't at the shop, but Jinta would never be able to keep a low enough profile to keep an eye on Chad.

With his three mod souls out, that really only left one that he could use, but he wasn't Urahara's first choice… for that matter he wasn't Urahara's second, third, or fourth choice. Still, beggars couldn't always be choosers he decided.

After making sure that all of his research and experiments were all right to be left unattended for a while, he set out for the Kurosaki house. Now, how was he going to convince Kon to go along with this?


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Merry Christmas! I thought I'd give an extra chapter today as a Christmas present. I'll still post another tomorrow at my normal time. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer:

"Well, last week finally went fairly well. Let's see whom we should pick for this week. How about…"

Ririn's voice calls from off stage, "Hey! How about us?"

She, Cloud, and Nova walk on stage in their gigai forms.

"Oh, hey there. Well, I suppose you three would work. I didn't really have anyone else in mind for this week."

Ririn huffs as she says, "Oh, I see. You were just going to leave us out of this story completely, was that it? Do you not like us or something?"

I'm quick to reassure her, "Oh, no, that's not it." Unfortunatly I can't help but mutter under my breath, "I like Nova just fine."

"Oi!" Cloud exclaims. "I heard that. What do you mean you like Nova! Does that mean you don't like me and Ririn? How could you be so insulting to our faces like that? This really is unacceptable behavior!"

"No, no, what I mean is… Well… you and Ririn can be a little… I don't know… trying from time to time. And Nova's just so darn cute…"

Nova zips his mask closed as Ririn exclaims, "What! Trying! We'll show you trying…"

Cloud transforms into an old man in jeans, button down white shirt, and cowboy boots and Ririn creates an illusion of me standing in front of a chalkboard with chalk in hand.

"Gah! Mr. Cutting, what are you doing here! And why am I in music theory again!"

Cloud, now as professor Cutting, says, "Are you the professor? You don't get to ask questions. Now, do as I said! Write out the circle of fifths, you have 20 seconds!"

I stare in terror at the black board. "What? I… I haven't done this in years… I… Oh no, not again… I can't be back in your class again… Please, please make this stop!"

The illusion suddenly vanishes and Cloud becomes himself again.

Ririn crosses her arms and asks, "Are you going to include us in your story? Or should we take you back to Music Theory 101 again?"

"I'll include you! I'll include you! Just please, don't put me back in that class!"

Ririn nods, "Good… Now, Mystica does not own Bleach."

Cloud adds, "She does own her plot however, as weak as it has been without out us so far."

Nova unzips his mask. "Right," and then zips it closed again.

Chapter 8

Already missing two days of school, Chad headed out to the woods again to miss a third. He hadn't had any luck so far in gaining any more power. He had decided when he had found the waterfall where Ishida had done his training, that maybe he shouldn't pick that exact spot. If that were where Ishida trained, then he probably wouldn't want Chad to tear it apart with his own training.

He had followed the river further down and found another clearing that he chose as his own spot. He had been throwing devastating punches around now for two days and the area looked like a war zone. The ground was all churned up, the rocks blasted into dust… but still he couldn't seem to find any more power to his attacks than he already had.

He sat down beside the riverbank when he got there and stared at the mess that he had made. "No good," he muttered to himself. "No good at all."

Kon peered from under a bush up at Chad. He gasped at the destruction that was wrought all around the area and suddenly no longer wanted to be there. If Chad didn't know that he was there and started flinging his power around again like this, there was a real good chance Kon would be blasted apart.

"Why do I always get dragged into this stuff…" Kon muttered to himself. "That stupid hat'n clogs is always getting me into trouble."

But Chad didn't seem to be interested in practicing today. He turned around from the disturbed area and stared blankly into the flowing water. "Ichigo…" he muttered. "What should I do?"

Kon heard him and wondered what Chad was talking about. What was Chad trying to do? And why would he want to know what Ichigo thought? Kon shook his head and flopped on his stomach. He was already bored with his little excursion. Chad seemed just fine, if a little more moody than usual. Why Urahara wanted him to keep an eye on the kid was beyond Kon.

"Maybe I should just blow this off and go find some girls who wouldn't mind snuggling such a cute character like myself," Kon mused. He sighed, "Ah, it's been a long time since I've had some snuggles."

Suddenly Kon heard Ichigo's voice calling out. He jumped and looked around, wondering what he was doing out here.

Chad did the same, he stood up and searched for a sight of Ichigo. "Chad!" Ichigo's voice called again as he suddenly burst through the tree line into Chad's practice field. He was in his Shinigami form with his Zanpakuto in hand. He hadn't gotten further than a few steps before another Shinigami burst through the trees behind him.

Ichigo spun around and faced off to this new Shinigami. Chad didn't recognize him at all but could plainly see that he was after Ichigo.

"Ichigo!" Chad called out and started to run towards his friend.

He was suddenly stopped in his tracks by a figure that materialized just in front of him. He stood there, slacked jawed, staring up at a man that had been dead for years. "Abuelo…" he gasped.

XXX

Ishida was quite certain that today was going to be his last day confined to that bed. He was quite glad that, following Inoue's visit, he would be almost completely back to his normal condition. He just hoped that Inoue's visit would actually happen. She had run out of there quite upset the day before and Ishida wasn't entirely certain that she would want to face him again.

He was rather surprised when she walked in, all smiles, and completely back to her normal self. She was even wearing her hairpins before she entered. Something had come over her since she had run out of the room the night before.

"Inoue-san!" Ishida said when she stepped inside the room.

"Hello, Ishida-kun!" she exclaimed and came over to him. She knelt down in her usually place and immediately called out her fairies. "You are looking better today, Ishida-kun. I should be able to finish healing you today!"

"Oh… ah… Thank you, Inoue-san," he said, not sure how to respond.

She just smiled in return and then concentrated on her work. A short time later, she dismissed the fairies and asked, "How is that, Ishida-kun?"

He sat up and noticed that for the first time in days there wasn't any pain in his stomach. Flexing his arms and touching a few other places that had been tender, he found the pain was gone from there as well. "It's all healed, Inoue-san," he told her and gave her a grateful look. "Thank you."

She smiled and nodded, "I wish to thank you, Ishida-kun." Her face sobered while she took a quite pause and seemed to gather her thoughts. "You helped me to figure a few things out, these last few days. And I am grateful for your help."

"Inoue-san?" he asked, wondering how she could have gone through such a change in such a short amount of time.

"Ishida-kun," she said softly while directing her gaze downward. "Last night I had started to ask you a question before I left. It was that question that I spent the rest of the night trying to figure out the answer to and I believe I may have reached it."

"What was the question?" he asked her.

"Do you think… that I was really in love with Kurosaki-kun?"

Ishida stared at her blankly. It was not a question that he had expected her to ask. She had already admitted to him that she did love Ichigo, but now she doubted that…?

Inoue pressed on. "I began to think about what you had said about how Kurosaki-kun loves all of us. How that's his nature to take people into his heart." She looked up and met Ishida's eyes then. "I started to wonder if maybe that was the same type of love that I had for him… That I might be confusing it for something else."

"And what did you decide it was?"

"That I do love him… I love who he is, I love what he stands for and how strong and courageous he is. I love how much he loves me… loves all of us."

Ishida nodded to her to go on as she stopped with hesitation. "I love everything about him… but I don't _love_ him. I had thought because I felt so strongly about him, that I must be in love. But I was mistaking it for respect and admiration."

Ishida looked at her and saw that she had finally come to terms with her emotions. She wasn't carrying around a burden of self-doubt and jealousy any longer. She knew now how she felt and where Ichigo fit into her life. She was always going to be there for him, always going to be willing to do whatever he asked of her… She was still as loyal and true to him as a friend as any of them were; but she had reconciled her emotions enough to know that she was not meant to be with him.

As he came to understand this, Ishida was taken by surprised by his own emotional reaction. Deep down inside, he noticed that there was a tiny flicker of… hope? But what was he hopeful about? Did he still hope that Ichigo and Inoue would get together yet?

But he knew that wasn't the case because that very thought elicited another unexpected emotion. This one he knew was nothing other than jealousy. The very thing that had plagued Inoue had some crept into his own heart… but why?

He shook off his thoughts and said, "I'm glad that you are feeling better now, Inoue-san."

She smiled and then pulled out her schoolbooks. "I know you're probably wanting to get out of here now that you're all better, Ishida-kun," she told him. "But I thought that maybe…"

But she was cut off as the door slid open. Inoue gave a slight gasp at the man that was standing on the other side. Ishida gave an exasperated sigh and stood up. He was very grateful that this confrontation came after he had been fully healed because there was no way that he would have wanted to face this man in his previous condition.

"What are you doing here, Ryuken?"

Inoue sat on the floor where she was, looking between father and son. "You never change, Uryuu," Ryuken said as he stepped into the room. "My son was injured to the point of near death and he doesn't even let his father know where he is…"

"Don't pretend that you actually care how I am," Ishida said calmly as he adjusted his glasses. He was determined not to become overly upset by his father's appearance.

Ryuken took another step towards his son and said, "Perhaps not… I just hoped that my son might have the common courtesy to tell his father these sorts of things. But you are right, that's not what brought me here. I came to ask you what happened to the deal that we made?"

Ishida stood his ground, squaring his shoulders to his father, but didn't reply. "I thought that we had had a deal, Uryuu? I would show you how to regain your Quincy powers, and you would have nothing to do with the Shinigami… Now here you are, staying in the home of one of them after having been injured while fighting alongside another… How is it that you can justify that?"

"I can't," Ishida said without hesitation. "You are right. I didn't keep my word to you. But the way I see it, you had no right to ask that of me. You knew perfectly well that I wanted so badly to regain my powers so I could help my friends. It was pointless for you to ask me to stop doing that in exchange for those powers."

"So you lied?" Ryuken asked as he leveled a glared on his son.

"Not intentionally at the time… but I guess I did. And if you have some way of taking back my powers now, then please do so."

Ryuken stared at him for a long moment. "Ishida-kun…" Inoue said from where she still sat.

"Don't worry, Inoue-san," Ishida told her. "Even if he can and does take away my Quincy powers, my conscience will at least be clear."

"I see," Ryuken said. He sighed and stepped forward again. "So you have truly abandoned everything that you are… You have lied to your father and have gone directly against his wishes. You are truly no son of mine." He reached out a hand as if to grab Ishida's forehead. Suddenly a smack resounded through the room and Ryuken was sent reeling back.

Urahara was standing there between Ishida and his father, cane extended out to where Ryuken's hand had been a moment before. Ryuken was leaning against the doorframe, cradling his now injured hand.

"Just what do you think you're doing… Cloud?" Urahara asked Ryuken as he stood up straight. A look of complete surprise was plastered across his face.

"Cloud?" Ishida and Inoue said together.

XXX

"Abuelo…" Chad breathed as he stared up at the man who had raised him. His grandfather had been the one that had taught him how to behave. He had been a violent child, but his grandfather showed him how to be gentle. He had instilled in Chad the desire to not cause pain to others.

"Abuelo… how?" he asked.

His grandfather looked at him with sad eyes. "Yasutora, what are you doing?" he asked.

Chad simply stood there, staring at his grandfather. He saw now that it wasn't really his grandfather, not as the man that he had known. The figure was hovering just off of the ground in front of him with a slightly translucent appearance. From his chest, was a chain, showing that this was actually his grandfather's spirit.

"Yasutora, I thought I taught you not to fight," his grandfather said.

"Abuelo, I don't fight for my own sake…" Chad tried to explain himself. "I only fight to protect others."

"Chad!" Ichigo called again from across the field. Two more Shinigami had appeared and were surrounding him.

Chad went to take a step in Ichigo's direction, but the spirit said, "Your hands were not meant to hurt… would you hurt those that have done you no harm?"

"Abuelo, he's my friend!" Chad protested.

"Chad! What are you doing?" Ichigo called as he managed to take down one of the Shinigami. The other two were still advancing on him though.

"He can take care of himself, Yasutora," came the response. "You have seen it many times. There is no need for you to put up a fight against these people. You're not needed to protect him."

Chad froze. He stood there and watched as Ichigo suddenly switched into his Bankai. Another Shinigami dropped and the other was beginning to look as if he wouldn't last much longer. "Why do you fight for this one, Yasutora? He doesn't need your help."

Chad watched as Ichigo took care of the last Shinigami and turned to face Chad. "Is it an excuse, Yasutora? Have you been using your friendship with him as a way to get around that pledge you made to me? That you would never fight for you own sake?"

"Abuelo…" Chad said, looking at his grandfather's ghost. "I…I don't…"

"Chad, what's going on?" Ichigo asked as he started to come closer.

Chad stared at Ichigo a moment and then turned and ran.

Kon watched as everything unfolded. He stared at the scene wondering what in the world was going on. Some old guy's spirit was talking to Chad while Ichigo fought against a bunch of Shinigami… none of it made any sense.

Ichigo defeated all of his opponents with ease. But Ichigo didn't seem to see the ghost in front of Chad and kept asking what was wrong with him. Suddenly Chad just took off.

As soon as Chad's back was turned, the spirit vanished. Kon burst out from the bush and ran towards Ichigo. "Ichigo!" he cried. "Ichigo, what is going…" but then Ichigo also disappeared.

Kon stopped dead in his tracks. He suddenly realized that he had never sensed Ichigo near by. Not even when he had switched into his Bankai form could he sense Ichigo's reiatsu.

"What is going on here?" Kon said as he turned around and looked after where Chad had run. Realizing that this was the very reason that Urahara wanted him to keep an eye on the teen, Kon leapt into action and chased after Chad as fast as he could.

He caught up to him a little ways away. Kon approached him from behind a tree where he could see Chad leaning against it from the other side. "Chad?" he asked tentatively as he approached.

Chad didn't seem to hear him. Kon came closer and saw that there were others standing in front of Chad. They looked like they were of Hispanic decent and they were hitting Chad. Chad just stood there, taking their blows.

"Chad!" Kon exclaimed, rushing forward. Though what he was going to do in his plushy form he had no idea. He had just leapt up to try and block one of the boy's punches when a hand shot out and snatched him out of the air and threw him across the woods. Kon slammed into a tree and slowly slid down, slightly dazed.

He could see now the ghost hovering a few meters away from the scene of Chad getting beat up, watching it with sad eyes. "Oi! Chad! Snap out of it!" Kon yelled getting back up and making his way over to the teen again.

Suddenly a Shinigami appeared in front of Kon and drew his Zanpakuto. "Don't interfere," the Shinigami said, threatening Kon.

Kon looked up at the blade in terror. Suddenly the sound of a body hitting the ground drew his attention. Chad had fallen on his face from the beating that he was taking.

"This is how it should be, Yasutora," the spirit said. "You were never meant to fight. Not even your friends' battles. I taught you that."

Ichigo appeared again, pursued by several more Shinigami.

"Chad!" he cried. "Get up! Help me!"

Chad looked up at Ichigo and watched as his friend fought. Ichigo was covered in wounds this time and it didn't look like he was fairing as well with the group. Chad started to get up, but the boys were still beating him.

"You're not meant to fight," the spirit said.

"I must help him," Chad replied, forcing himself to stand even as he continued to receive kicks and injuries from the boys.

Kon gapped at what was unfolding before him. He couldn't believe that Ichigo was taking a beating from such low level Shinigami. And Chad was certainly able to take care of those thugs that were on him.

Kon blinked and as he opened his eyes again, he thought that he saw more low-level Shinigami beating Chad up rather than the thugs. Glancing back at Ichigo, it wasn't Ichigo anymore, but another Shinigami that didn't look injured at all.

Then Kon realized what was going on. He looked up at the Shinigami still holding a sword at him. He was real, very much so. Kon could feel his presence. Most of the others were not there though. A few were on Chad and a couple on the not-Ichigo, but more of the figures were not there at all. That included the spirit that was telling Chad not to fight.

Kon looked up at the sword in front of him and then turned and launched himself out of there. He glanced back and was glad to see that the Shinigami wasn't following him. "I'm sorry Chad," he said. "But I can't help with this one like I am. But I'm going to get you help."

XXX

_"Just what do you think you're doing… Cloud?" Urahara asked Ryuken as he stood up straight. A look of complete surprise was plastered across his face._

_ "Cloud?" Ishida and Inoue said together._

The figure that was Ryuken suddenly melted and standing before them was the mod soul, Cloud. "Cloud?" Ishida repeated, completely stunned. "How…?"

"I would rather know why?" Urahara said still pointing his cane at Cloud.

"I… I'm sorry… Urahara-san," Cloud muttered and he took a step back. "They forced me… They said if I didn't do this that they would turn Ririn and Nova over to Kurotsuchi…"

Urahara slowly lowered his cane as a look of understanding began to cross his face.

"Who said that?" Ishida asked. "Why would they want to make you impersonate my father?"

Urahara let out an exasperated sigh, "To test you," he said. "To test your loyalty and determination to fight along side Ichigo." He planted his cane on the floor and stood there, looking at Cloud.

"What?" Ishida exclaimed. "Who's testing me! What is going on here, Urahara-san!"

Urahara closed his eyes a moment before he turned and addressed Ishida and Inoue in a weary sounding voice. "I am sorry, both of you, but there is something that I need to tell you."

"U…Urahara-san," Cloud muttered behind him. "Y…you're not…" 

"I don't care anymore, Cloud," he said without looking back. "Don't worry, they won't hurt Ririn and Nova… not if they still expect me to play along with this little game of theirs too. They are just going to have to deal with me changing the rules a little."

"Urahara-san?" Inoue asked. "Please, what is going on?"

"You both, and probably Sado-san too, as well as myself, are being tested by Soul Society…"

Inoue gave a slight gasp and Ishida opened his mouth to ask another question, but suddenly a yell from outside interrupted them. "Urahara-san!" a voice screamed as a blur of yellow streaked into the room and launched itself up onto Urahara's shoulder.

It was Kon. "Urahara-san," Kon panted. "It's Chad! He's in trouble!"

Urahara's wearied expression suddenly vanished and was replaced with a dark one. He turned around and headed right out the door saying, "We're going to have to finish this discussion later."

"Urahara-san!" Ishida exclaimed as he went to follow him.

"Not this time, Ishida-san," the shopkeeper said. He snapped his fingers and a barrier suddenly appeared at the doorway, blocking Ishida, Inoue, and Cloud inside the room.

"Wait!" Ishida cried. "Urahara-san!" But he wasn't listening. The moment he stepped outside of the shop, he disappeared from sight.

XXX

Kon clung desperately to Urahara's shoulder as the ex-captain flashed through the air. "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Kon cried as he started to slip. "Dude! Let me at least get a grip!"

"Kon," Urahara said as he grabbed the stuffed animal and shifted him so he had a better hold on his shoulder. He quickly returned his hand to holding his hat in place once that was done. "Tell me what happened."

"It was so weird! One minute Ichigo was there and he was getting beat by Shinigami… then all of a sudden there was this old guy spirit talking to Chad. Chad ran off and Ichigo just vanished! When I found Chad again, a bunch of guys were beating up on him and he just let them and then Ichigo was there getting beat by more Shinigami!"

"Ichigo is at home… he can't be out there…" Urahara said, glancing at Kon.

"I know! It's not Ichigo! It was all illusions, though there really are Shinigami there! I could see them for a second."

"Illusions…" Urahara muttered. "Ririn…" he whispered as he put on another burst of speed.

Kon clung on tightly as he yelled, "Ririn! No way! She wouldn't do something like that!"

"She might not have a choice. It is logical, though." That was all that he would say on the matter.

Kon gasped as they suddenly came to a stop. Urahara stood in the air several meters above the area where Chad was fighting. The youth didn't look to be in very good shape.

"Kon, I apologize, but you're going to have to get off now." Urahara grabbed Kon and tossed him some distance away into a tree.

"HEEEEEeeeeeey!" the plushy yelled before he impacted the tree. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," he muttered as he bounced down from branch to branch all the way down to the ground. "Bastard," Kon breathed as he lay on the ground staring back up the tree he had just fallen through.

Urahara didn't waste anytime after ridding himself of the mod soul. With a flick of his wrist, he stripped his sword of the wooden shaft that concealed it within his cane. Once completed, he launched himself down into the fray.

Chad had fallen to the ground and was struggling to stand again when all of a sudden a loud crash just above him grabbed his attention. Urahara was standing there above him, sword crossed with another Shinigami, protecting Chad.

"Ura…hara-san," Chad gasped in surprised as he stared up at him.

Not taking his eyes off of the surprised Shinigami in front of him, Urahara said, "I'm sorry I'm late, Sado-san. I must ask you, please do not move." With that he shoved the Shinigami back and then brought his hands together. He closed his eyes and concentrated for only a moment before suddenly opening them and pulling his hands apart.

A blast of green energy erupted from between his hands and rapidly burst outward in a sphere around them. As it passed, the Shinigami that were really there were knocked flat on their backs. In addition, all of the illusions vanished.

Chad stared up at his grandfather's spirit as the blast hit it, dissolving it into nothing. "Abuelo!" he cried as he reached out towards where the soul had just been. He then looked around and saw that many of the enemies had disappeared. He gave another gasped and stood up yelling, "Ichigo!" He didn't see any sign of his friend anymore.

"Kurosaki was never here, Sado-san," Urahara said softly. "Nor was you grandfather," he turned around and faced Chad for the first time. Chad was surprised by the look of sadness in the shopkeeper's eyes when he looked at him.

"But… Urahara-san… They…" 

"Urahara Kisuke!" a deep voice echoed across the field. Both ex-Shinigami and teen looked skyward towards the source of that voice. They watched as a figure seemed to step forward out of thin air and stand above them, looking down at them with anger purely written on his face.

"Captain-commander," Urahara said, as he turned his face to meet Yamamoto's glare.

"Urahara Kisuke," he repeated. "You were told to stay out of this affair."

"And I told you that I would no longer stand by and watch you hurt these kids," Urahara replied.

"Captain-commander…?" Chad muttered, completely at a loss over what was happening.

Urahara and Yamamoto stood their ground glaring at one another for several moments longer. Suddenly there was a small voice to Urahara's right that broke the stare down. "U…Urahara-san?"

Urahara looked over and saw Ririn standing slowly, blinking as if she had just come out of a daze. "Ririn," Urahara said as his fierce look suddenly melted at the sight of her. She looked completely drained and her eyes were just beginning to clear from a glaze. "Are you all right, Ririn?" Urahara asked as he took a step towards her.

"She was unharmed," Yamamoto replied.

Urahara looked back up at him, anger returning to his face. "Unharmed! You were controlling her, weren't you! You used her just as you used Cloud against Ishida Uryuu! What gives you the right to use people like this?"

"People?" the captain-commander said, finally cracking his eyes barely open to look down at Urahara. "The modified souls were made to be used. You made and used them to track down Bounts… where is the difference?"

"Urahara-san didn't make us do anything!" Ririn snapped. "He made us for a purpose, yes… but he never said that we had to do anything. He left us with the choice!"

"Ririn…" Urahara said softly, trying to warn her from drawing Yamamoto's ire.

"Urahara-san," Chad said softly behind him just a second before he began to topple over in a dead faint. Urahara quickly spun around and caught him before he hit the ground. He looked at the teen in his arms a moment, taking in the damage that had been done to him. With a sigh, he lifted the boy that was much larger than himself up onto his shoulders and turned back to look up at Yamamoto.

"I believe that these kids have more than proved themselves to you before now. You're tests were cruel and heinous and I will not stand for it anymore. If you still don't believe that you can trust them, then you're going to have to find someone else to do your dirty work for you."

The captain-commander remained silent for a long stretch before he said, "They have passed…"

Urahara sighed and then turned away from him. "Please send Yoruichi back when you can, I'm sure she can fill in the few blanks that I still have." With that he hefted Chad a little higher on his shoulders and then vanished.

He was gone from sight only a moment though before he reappeared without Chad beside Ririn. He reached down and lifted her into his arms, gave one final glance at Yamamoto, and then disappeared again.

The captain-commander remained standing in the air, leaning on his gnarled cane for several minutes as the Shinigami that had been knocked out below slowly regained consciousness. "Let's go," he finally declared and then stepped through the air again and disappeared. All of the Shinigami below did the same, leaving the field empty again.


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

This chapter has a lot of talking in it, but we finally get to find out much of what has been going on. I hope you all enjoy and please R&R

Disclaimer:

I step back onstage, shaking a little. "Ok… well… I'm not too sure how this disclaimer thing is going. So far I have nearly been killed, almost had my arm broken, and last week I had to face my worst fear… not exactly what I had in mind when I started this little thing. Still, I guess I might as well press on. How about we hear from Ichigo this week?

Ichigo suddenly appears center stage. He looks around confused and says, "Eh?"

"Ichigo, could you please disclaim my story for the audience?"

"What are you talking about? How did I get here? What's going on?"

I sigh before saying, "Haven't you been paying attention? I have been asking different characters to come up before each chapter to disclaim my story. All you have to say is that I don't own Bleach."

"… You don't own bleach? Can't you just go to the store and pick some up? Why do I need to say that at all?"

"…You're pretty dense, aren't you? Just say it and you can leave, Ichigo."

With a shrug he says, "All right. This woman does not own Bleach… whatever that's supposed to mean." He turns and walks of stage shaking his head.

Chapter 9

Urahara returned to the shop, carrying Chad and Ririn holding onto his back. "Chad!" Ichigo exclaimed as he ran forward towards them. He had been sitting on the porch with Nova and Rukia when they had arrived.

"He'll be all right," Urahara said, as he walked quickly but unhurriedly forward and into the shop. "He just took a little too much beating on top of quite a lot of stress and excitement. He'll be fine after some rest."

He carried Chad through the house and into the very room where Ishida had been laid up for the past several days. He walked right through the barrier that was still in place over the door, surprising the three that had been trapped in there.

"Urahara-san!" Ishida gasped as he jumped up from the mat that he had been sitting on. Urahara gently laid Chad out on the mat and then turned to the others. Ichigo, Rukia, and Nova stood in the doorway, looking on expectantly for some explanation. Ririn stood just behind them out of sight.

"Nova!" Cloud exclaimed. "You're all right!"

"Aye," Nova said with a nod of his head.

"I'm glad to see that they released you, Nova," Urahara said. "Now, if you all will follow me downstairs, I can explain everything… well, almost everything. I suspect that Yoruichi-san will be turning up shortly to explain the rest."

Ichigo spoke up, "Yoruichi? I thought she…"

"…I told you, I'll explain if you wait a moment," Urahara said with a sigh.

"What about Sado-kun?" Inoue asked as she looked down at the unconscious teen.

"He just needs rest for now. I will ask Tessai to keep an eye on him, but he should be all right in a little while."

The group all looked extremely confused but did as Urahara asked. A short time later they were all gathered in the practice grounds under the shop.

Urahara looked at each of them slowly before speaking. When he started, he pulled out his fan and hid the lower half of his face as he talked. "I must first begin with an apology to you all. I'm afraid that I have been keeping secrets from you as I had been ordered. But I have come to realize that those orders no longer apply to me since I have cut ties with Soul Society."

"Orders?" Rukia asked.

He nodded and closed his fan but kept it out in his hand. "Yes. That letter that you gave me from Captain Ukitake was a request from Soul Society that I not interfere with their tests."

"Tests?" Ichigo asked. "What tests?"

Urahara seemed to consider a moment before he reached into his sleeve and pulled out the letter that Rukia had given him from Ukitake. "I think that I should read this to you so that you can fully understand how much I have and have not known up to this point…

_Urahara, I am sorry to do this to you, old friend, but I have a very important request to ask of you. As far as I know, we still do not know the true nature of the new threat. What I can say is that the Captain-commander does know more than he is saying. He has informed Kyoraku and myself that we are once again going to have to put our trust in Kurosaki Ichigo and his human friends to fix this. He also said that, though this group is the only one that can possibly combat this threat, there is some worry of the humans' loyalties. Yamamoto has declared that those humans will have to be tested before any more information is given. Kurosaki has proved himself many times over already and so has been given the status of substitute Shinigami and so his allegiance has been accepted and he will not have to be tested._

_ I know that this is harsh and if it were up to me, there would be no need for these tests, but you know how the commander can be. This one is big, Kisuke. Whatever is going on even has Yamamoto worried, and that's saying something._

_ Please, under no circumstance are the humans to be told of this. The tests depend on them not knowing that they are being tested. Please, do not interfere with the tests either. We ask only that you observe and pass along what you see through Yoruichi-san back to Soul Society._

There was silence as Urahara folded the letter back up and placed it back in the envelope before tucking the whole thing back in his sleeve.

Finally, Ichigo's voice broke the silence. He spoke softly but everyone there could hear the anger behind his words. "How could that old man ever think that any of us are not loyal? We have all proved ourselves over and over to him and Soul Society… What makes me any different from the rest?" As he spoke, his voice grew in volume and intensity so that he was nearly shouting by the time that he finished.

Urahara simply gazed back at Ichigo with a blank expression. He watched Ichigo wrestle with his anger for a few moments, trying to bring it back under control before he spoke again. "I share your sentiment, Kurosaki-san," he said softly. "And since I have received this letter, I believe I have come to understand that Yamamoto may not be the driving force behind these tests after all."

Ichigo was suddenly sapped of his rage as his face went blank, not understanding what Urahara could mean. It was Ishida that spoke up next, "I understand why those of Soul Society would have to test me, a Quincy… but who else could possibly care where our loyalties lie? Is it not Soul Society that has been threatened?"

"It is… and so has the real world, and so has Hueco Mundo, and even hell. But what I have come to realize is that there is another, often forgotten dimension that may also have been threatened by this attack."

"Which is?" Ishida asked.

It was Rukia's gasp that interrupted Urahara before he could say. "The Spirit King…" she breathed as it dawned on her what he had been talking about.

They all looked at her, wondering how she could have possibly come up with such an answer. The Spirit King was supposedly in an entirely separate dimension that even Aizen couldn't reach without the King's Key. How could there be anyone that could threaten the King of Soul Society?

"Kuchiki-san is correct," Urahara told them solemnly.

The shocked looks quickly transferred from Rukia to Urahara.

"But… how?" Inoue said quietly.

"I have reason to suspect that the source of our current problems is being cause by someone from the royal house."

"Royal house?" Ichigo asked confused.

Rukia spoke at the same time asking, "You think that one of them has betrayed the Spirit King?"

Urahara nodded to Rukia and then said, "Perhaps you would like to explain about the royal house, Kuchiki-san."

She sighed and then addressed the rest of the group. "The Spirit King is not the sole resident of his dimension. He is the head of an entire house, much like nii-sama is the head of the Kuchiki clan. Just like in Soul Society, the Spirit King is not immortal, though he is even longer lived than we are. So he must provide heirs to his thrown. That means that he has wives and children as well as the countless servants and attendants that surround him in his dimension."

Urahara nodded, "That's right. What I believe is happening, is one of the royal house, probably one of the older children in fact, has betrayed their father and is trying to seize control for themselves."

"It's the second son, Atsushi," Yoruichi's voice said as the woman came walking up from behind a rock to meet them. She had returned to her human form and Ichigo was relieved to see that she had found her clothes again.

Urahara gave her a cold glance before saying blandly, "Thank you, Yoruichi-san."

Everyone looked at him, wondering what was up with his cold manner in the way that he spoke to her. They had never heard him talk like that to Yoruichi.

The woman ignored it, though, and sat herself down in the circle that had gathered round Urahara. "So, the second born son of the Spirit King, Atsushi, seems to have decided to betray his father," Urahara reiterated as if he had never been interrupted in the first place.

"What is his goal?" Ishida asked.

Yoruichi spoke up again and said, "He's not just after his father's thrown; he wants to rule the other dimensions in more than just word. He is trying to gain dominance over each realm by cutting them off from each other and dealing with them individually.

"Individually?" Ichigo said. "How?"

Urahara took over again. "By first draining as much power as he can from the void between the worlds. That is one of the reasons that the gates and communications have not worked. There is a tremendous amount of energy in precipice worlds if one knows how and is capable of using it."

"Which anyone of the royal house is," Yoruichi said. "Their main purpose is to guard those areas so they are very good at manipulating and using those particular energy flows."

Urahara nodded, saying, "That means that they are able to create paths and portals through the dimensions as well, even under these circumstances."

"And they are also well aware of other dimensions that are out there that we are not," Yoruichi said. "Soul Society believes that Atsushi is probably hiding out in one of these dimensions… possibly has even created one just for himself."

"But what does this stupid testing thing have to do with any of this?" Ichigo demanded.

"Put simply," Yoruichi said. "Though all of you have become greatly trusted in Soul Society, it is the Spirit King that needs your help this time. It is a member of his household that has gone rouge. It is not those in Soul Society that you humans must prove yourselves to, but the Spirit King himself."

Inoue gasped as Ishida pushed his glasses up and returned Yoruichi's gaze.

"But, how have we been tested?" Inoue asked. "Was that why Sado-kun was injured?"

Urahara nodded. He was about to explain further when Ichigo beat him to it. "You mean," he said, the rage in his voice returning. "That that hollow from the other day… the one that took me over and nearly killed Uryuu… that was all part of this test!"

Urahara sighed and lowered his head. "It was, I'm afraid. I suspect that it was engineered for that purpose by Kurotsuchi."

"You knew about this!" Ichigo accused Urahara as he jumped to his feet. "You knew that these tests were coming and you said nothing! I nearly killed Uryuu!" He had reached for the hilt of his sword as he spoke.

"Ichigo!" Rukia cried as she stood too and placed a restraining hand on his arm. "It wasn't his fault!"

"No, it was," Urahara said quietly as he raised his head and met Ichigo's surprised face. Slowly he turned his head and looked at Ishida.

The Quincy sat there still and quiet as he returned Urahara's look without expression. "Ishida-san…" Urahara said. "I am very sorry for what happened…" 

"Kuchiki-san is right," Ishida said as he once again pushed his glasses up while cutting Urahara short. "It was not your fault. You may have known that we were to be tested, but you did not make the tests and you didn't know when they were coming. For all you knew that hollow could simply have been another hollow. The fact that you knew about it doesn't change anything. Whether you had warned us or not, I doubt that the results would have been much different. Soul Society would still have sent it, Ichigo would still have gone to fight it and I would have been the only one that could have stopped it."

"Uryuu…" Ichigo said, looking at Ishida with a slightly stunned expression. Of any of them, he should have been the most outraged at all of this. Ishida had very nearly been killed… would have died if Urahara and Tessai hadn't shown up the moment that they did. But he didn't seem to be the least bit angry.

"Thank you, Ishida-san," Urahara said as he bowed to him. "I am very glad to hear that you feel that way."

"As for Soul Society," Ishida went on. "I have never had an extreme amount of trust for them and this testing doesn't surprise me in the least. I have made it no secret that my loyalty is not to them, but to Ichigo."

Before Ichigo could make a comment, Yoruichi said, "That is why you passed, Ishida."

He looked at her slightly confused. "These tests were not to determine loyalty to Soul Society, but to Ichigo."

They all looked towards Ichigo. He stood there, staring back at them with a dumbfounded expression on his face. "But… why me?" he finally asked.

"The royal family cannot have anything to do with Soul Society," Urahara explained. "The King is not to interfere with Soul Society's affairs and vice versa. So, when dealing with an heir to the thrown, no one that is an official part of Soul Society can intervene."

"But Ichigo is a substitute Shinigami," Rukia said.

"But he is not a full Shinigami," Urahara countered. "He is an adjunct of the protection squads, but not an actual part. That makes him perfect for this mission because he has the power and strength to potentially take on the prince, but doesn't have the political connections that would make it impossible for him to interfere."

"And the rest of us?" Inoue asked.

"You all also have powers that can help in this. But you are also humans. The Spirit King has never dealt with humans before. He has, on occasions, had some dealings with Soul Society before. The Kings key, after all, is in the possession of the captain commander in case of emergencies. But humans are too far removed from him."

"But…" Inoue said after a moment of silence. "Ishida-kun, and now apparently Sado-kun have been tested… What about me?"

"Inoue-san," Ishida said softly. "I believe you were…" he glanced at her with a significant look.

"Oh," she gasped as she realized what it was.

"What?" Ichigo asked. "What did they…"

But Rukia cut him off by saying, "I take it then, that all of them passed?"

Ichigo looked at Rukia, wondering why she wasn't curious as to how Inoue had been tested. Rukia gave him one of her 'just drop it' looks.

"Yes, they have," Urahara said. "Even though I intervened on Sado-san's behalf… All of them have passed." There was still a hint of bitterness in his voice that told all of them his feelings on the whole ordeal. All of them couldn't help but agree with him, but now understood that there really wasn't a way around it.

"What I don't understand," Rukia said. "Is how anyone from Soul Society was able to come here now." She glanced over at Yoruichi as she spoke.

Yoruichi shrugged and said, "The captain-commander has possession of the Kings Key. It not only opens a gate to the Spirit King's dimension, but to any dimension, no matter what the circumstances are."

Urahara nodded and said, "Simply put, it opens a door directly from one dimension to another, ignoring the precipice world entirely."

"So it would be like stepping from one room to another rather than walking from one city to the next," Ishida summed up.

"Precisely," Urahara told him.

"But if that's the case," Rukia said. "Then why has there been so little contact with Soul Society?"

"That is how they wished it, for now," Yoruichi explained. "Partly to keep from interfering with the tests and partly to allow the prince to believe that his plan to seal off the worlds had worked." She looked at Rukia and saw that there was a question the woman wanted to ask but didn't want to interrupt this meeting with it. "And, so you know, Abarai has not yet regained consciousness. But Unohana believes that it is in fact a poison and she will be able to find the antidote soon."

Rukia gave a sigh of relief while everyone around the circle seemed to feel a bit better on hearing that news.

"Kisuke," Yoruichi said, changing the subject. "Have you made any progress on finding the prince?"

They all looked at Urahara in shock. As far as they knew, he only just now found out about the prince. How could he have been trying to locate him already?

"Some," he said. "Knowing exactly who I am looking for will make things a little easier now," he gave her another cold look but then continued. "I had an opportunity to see him the other day. He peeked in on the aftermath of Ishida-san and Kurosaki's fight."

"You saw his gate?" Yoruichi said in a rather surprised tone.

"Not so much a gate, really," Urahara said. "It resembled a Garganta, though it wasn't quite the same as that either. I'll need to see it again to understand it better. As for the destination… that is going to be a little trickier."

They were all quiet for a moment before Ishida spoke up, "Why was he watching me?" he said almost to himself. They all looked at Ishida. He was sitting there with a hand on his chin, obviously in deep thought.

"Ishida-kun?" Inoue asked.

He looked up and saw that all eyes were on him. He apparently didn't realize that he had spoken out loud. "That is a good question," Urahara said before Ishida could say anything else. "I don't know if Atsushi had watched your fight or not, but he was looking in on the aftermath. For all we know, though, he was checking out all of us, trying to tell what his opposition in the real world would be like."

They all shrugged, deciding that it wasn't worth trying to figure out just yet. But before they could say anything more, a shaking in the ground interrupted them. "Another one!" Inoue gasped.

They all looked up at the ceiling for a moment as the quaking intensified. The fake sky above them seemed to rain some dust down, but held firmly otherwise. "Sado-kun," Inoue said as she tried to stand through the shaking. She kept falling every time she thought that she had managed to stand.

"Inoue, stay here," Ichigo said as he launched himself into the air and soared up through the opening in the ceiling. He could sense Rukia and Ishida close behind him. No sooner had Ichigo exited the hatch to the underground training grounds than a timber from the ceiling of the house began to fall towards his head.

Ichigo was just reaching for his sword to try and deflect the beam when suddenly a fist shot through the air, knocking it away. Ichigo looked and saw that Chad standing there, breathing heavily as he swayed with the rocking ground. His right arm was transformed and still clenched in a fist from having knocked the beam away.

Just then Rukia and then Ishida emerged from below. "Chad, are you all right?" Ichigo asked.

Chad gave a thumbs up even as he started to fall over from exhaustion. "Sado!" Rukia cried now that she was standing right next to him. She grabbed him and kept him form falling over. Ishida grabbed his other arm and between the two of them they held him up.

"Let's get him out of here!" Ichigo cried and began to lead them through the crumbling building towards the exit.

They all managed to make it outside without any further mishap. Rukia and Ishida lowered Chad to the ground. He was still conscious, but obviously hadn't finished healing yet. "Ichigo," Ishida said. "The shaking, it's getting worse."

"I noticed," Ichigo replied while he lost his balance and went down onto one knee.

"Something new is happening," Rukia said.

"Ichigo, let's go to the park… that's where the epicenter was before," Ishida suggested.

"All right," Ichigo replied. "Rukia, watch over Chad. When this stops, the others might need your help to get out."

She nodded to him as he and Ishida turned and took to the air, heading for the park.

XXX

Inoue and the three mod souls watched as the other three disappeared through the opening. Ririn was about to follow after them when a sudden crash sounded above and they all realized that the entrance was now blocked off, trapping them down there for the time being.

"Yoruichi-san," Urahara said softly behind her.

She turned her head and looked at him over her shoulder. "You've delivered your information. You should return to Soul Society."

She sat there, looking back at him with her arms crossed for a while before turning away again. "How long are you going to hold a grudge, Kisuke?"

"For the foreseeable future," he replied coolly.

"Tch," she voiced. She lowered her head a little and then said, "You know that I can't return there until the old man uses his key or you figure out a way to send me back. I think you have a few more important matters to attend to right now than getting me out of your sight."

Urahara sighed before saying softly to himself, "That seems to be true." He looked up again, noticing that the quake was only intensifying rather than diminishing. He needed to get out of there and see what was going on. "Nova," he called over to the mod soul.

"Aye," Nova said as he teleported the short distance from where he sat to Urahara's side. Without any other explanation, he grabbed Urahara's shoulder and then teleported both of them out of the practice grounds and outside of the shop entirely.

"Urahara-san!" Rukia exclaimed as they suddenly appeared beside her and Chad.

"Kuchki-san," he replied. "Where's Kurosaki and Ishida-san?"

"They went to investigate if the park was the center of this again."

He nodded, "Good thinking. I think I will head that way too." He turned to Nova and said, "I'm sure they're fine, but please make sure that Ururu, Jinta, and Tessai are all right and then help to get the others out."

Nova nodded once and said, "No problem."

With that, Urahara turned and placed his hand on his hat before disappearing from sight.

XXX

Ichigo was first to arrive at the park. He stopped in the air, just outside of the ring of trees that sectioned off the center of the park. He could tell from the wild swaying of those trees that the quake was still going and now he could see what was causing it. In the center of the park where the giant crater had been that Ishida had told them of, a white pillar was slowly growing from it. It looked like just a large white marble pillar, but there was a very strange, almost sickening feeling radiating from it.

That was all Ichigo had time to take in before Ishida appeared at his side. "What is that?" the Quincy said as he saw the pillar as well. It was now almost as tall as the surrounding trees and was continuing to grow.

Ichigo just stared at it, wondering what this could mean. Suddenly Ishida gasped and began to fall from his position in the sky. Ichigo reached out and grabbed his arm, keeping him from falling. "Uryuu!" he called in concern.

Ishida shook his head as if to clear it and regained his position. "It's alright, I'm fine now…" he said.

"What happened?"

Ishida looked back at the pillar before answering, "I don't know, but the spirit particles coming off of that thing are very strange. I felt as if I couldn't breathe for a moment when I tried to examine it."

"Tch," Ichigo clicked. "You should be more careful."

Ishida didn't respond except to push his glasses up further as he continued to stare at the pillar. A moment later, the trees stopped their wild trembling and the pillar stopped its growth. It now stood several meters above the treetops and as far around as the crater had been.

It was then that Urahara appeared next to them. "My, my," he said as he lowered his hand from the top of his hat. "What have we here?"

"It doesn't belong here," Ishida said in a contemplative voice, as if he didn't realize that he had spoken out loud again.

"What?" Ichigo asked, wondering what that could mean.

Urahara nodded, "Yes, I believe you're right."

"Right about what?" Ichigo demanded. "What are you two talking about?"

"That pillar, Ichigo," Ishida explained. "It doesn't belong in the real world. Its make up is completely wrong." He glanced over to Urahara and asked, "The normal humans can't see this thing, can they?"

Urahara shook his head, "No, I very much doubt that they can."

"But what the hell is it?" Ichigo demanded.

"I think…" Urahara said as he gripped his cane a little tighter and reached his left hand over to take hold of the casing. "…That we're about to find out."

As he spoke, a dark circle began to form about halfway up on the pillar. It looked as if a hole was slowly opening up in the surface itself. Ishida held his right hand out to the side and called out his bow. Ichigo took his cue from the others and also took a hold of his Zanpakuto, preparing to draw it from his back if needed.

After the circle had grown to be about 2 meters in diameter, a white clad foot appeared inside and stepped through. The rest of the body that followed proved to be a man appearing to be in his mid twenties. He had golden blond hair with bangs that swept down and partially covered his left eye. The eyes were a vivid blue, the same color as the sky. He was dressed in tight fitting white pants with white dress shoes. On top he had a bare chest, showing that he was quite well built. His chest was partly covered in a vest that matched the color of his eyes.

He stood there, standing in the air just outside of the dark circle in the white pillar and slowly looked around. Eventually, his gaze drifted up to look at the three men that were standing above his head. He looked at each one in turn with an impassive but measuring gaze. He ended his examination with Ishida. His eyes drifted to the bow in the boy's hand. The sight seemed to pull a grin on the man's lips before he finally looked at all of them again and spoke. "You must be the welcoming committee."

Urahara, bowed his head slightly and said, "We are. It is such and honor to have one such as yourself grace our presence. To what do we owe this honor?"

The grin on the man's face grew a little more as he turned and faced them squarely on saying, "Does a prince need a reason to visit his subjects?"

"The human world is not your domain, Prince Atsushi," Urahara replied as he tipped his head down a little more, casting his eyes even more in shadow.

"Ah, so I see word has already reached here," the prince replied as he began to walk towards them. He appeared to be climbing a set of invisible stairs as he ascended with every step to come to their level.

When he reached the same height as them, he stopped and looked each one over again. His eyes seemed to keep drifting towards Ishida and his bow. "Have you never seen a Quincy before?" Ishida asked, feeling as if he was on display.

Atsushi burst into laughter. "So it's true," he said though his laughs. "You really are a Quincy. I thought you're kind was long gone."

"I'm the last," Ishida replied, not seeing what was so funny about that.

"The last?" Atsushi said. "Well, I am glad that I have chosen to come when I did. I would have hated to miss ever seeing one of your kind."

Urahara spoke up softly, "So you haven't seen a Quincy before?"

Atsushi shook his head, "No, not like this anyway. But that's neither here nor there. I assume that you are here to see what, exactly, I am up to."

"Among other things," Urahara said.

"Well, you'll be glad to hear that, for now, all I want to do is take a look around. I haven't been to the human world in a very, very long time, you see."

"From what I hear," Ichigo said. "You have no a reason to visit here."

Urahara gave a sideways glance at Ichigo. The substitute Shinigami was taking a much more serious tone with this man than Urahara thought wise. Right now, if Atsushi were just gathering information, it would be best if they simply did the same. It wouldn't do to have Ichigo antagonizing the man when there was no need for violence as of yet.

"Well now," Atsushi said, crossing his arms and taking another look at Ichigo. "Rather boldly put for someone outside of their own world now, isn't it?"

"This is my world," Ichigo said sternly. "I'm a human."

Atsushi had a look of surprise cross his face for an instant before he quickly hid it. "A human? Well, this world is proving to be far more interesting than I had thought. Here before me are three humans with quite a bit of spirit power behind them. I have seen another too when I first took a peak here. Where did he go? The tall, dark skinned one."

"He's around," Urahara said quickly before Ichigo could say anything. "I'm sure we can arrange an introduction if you would like, your highness."

"Well, you at least seem to know your manners, even if they don't quite reach to you voice and eyes," a sarcastic grin spread across his face as he spoke.

He turned his head then and looked out over the town. "Such a busy place," he said. "I think that will be the first thing to change. There are far too many people here… If I take down the population some, this could be a rather pleasant location."

"What are you talking about?" Ichigo growled as he pulled his sword off of his back, the bindings unwrapping from the blade. "You think you can just go killing people to make some type of vacation place for you?"

"Kurosaki-san," Urahara said in a quiet warning tone to the boy.

Ichigo didn't back down. He pointed the sword at Atsushi as he glared him down. "Those are people, living their lives. What gives you the right?"

"The right?" Atsushi said without even blinking at the fact that he had a sword pointed at him. "What do rights matter when in comes to a god?" With that he turned and began to walk back down to the circle entrance in the pillar.

"Where are you going?" Ichigo called as he took a step forward. Urahara's hand shot out to cross Ichigo's chest, holding him from taking another step.

"Leaving so soon, milord?" the shopkeeper asked in a neutral tone.

"I've seen all that I need to for now. But I'll leave my gate up so that I won't have to disrupt everything so much again when I come back to call."

He stepped through the circle then without even glancing back. As he stepped through, the circle began to contract. Ichigo tired to follow after him but Urahara snapped his fingers and Ichigo suddenly found himself within a binding spell, unable to move at all.

"Wait here," he said as he descended to examine the exit that the prince had just taken.

"He's getting away!" Ichigo cried as he struggled against the invisible bindings that held him.

"Ichigo," Ishida said softly next to him. "Now is not the time. Let Urahara-san work."

Ichigo looked at Ishida in amazement. "That man just threatened to kill off people of this town and you're all right with letting him get away? We could stop him now before he even has a chance to act."

"And you would die in the process." Urahara said flatly as he looked back up at Ichigo. The hole had completely closed by now. Urahara snapped his fingers again and Ichigo suddenly lurched now that he was free from the binding. "Now, he's gone, there's nothing you can do about it. Please, return to the shop, both of you. I'll be there shortly."

Ichigo stood in the air, staring down at Urahara, stunned. "Let's go, Ichigo," Ishida said to him and he placed a hand on Ichigo's arm. "There's nothing more that we can do here."

Ichigo continued to glare at Urahara's back for a moment more before he turned, shaking Ishida's hand from his arm, and then disappeared. "That could have gone better," Urahara muttered without looking away from what he was doing.

Ishida sighed but didn't respond. He also turned and followed after Ichigo back to the shop. Urahara also sighed to himself after Ishida had left. He placed a hand on the pillar then and closed his eyes. He felt a wave of nausea come over him as he tried to determine what this pillar represented and where it came from.

"This is going to get messy," Urahara muttered before breaking contact with the pillar and also turning for home.


	10. Chapter 10

A/N: Happy New Year all! Welcome back and I hope all of you had a great holiday season. I also hope that now you'll have a little more time to leave a review ;)

Disclaimer:

"Ok, other than Ichigo being completely confused as to what is going on, last week actually went rather well. Let's see, who should we have this week?"

"Excuse me!" Ririn cries from off stage. She, Cloud, and Nova walk out on stage. "What do you call those last two chapters? The only one of us that got to do anything useful was Nova!"

Clearing my throat I stutter, "Oh, ah, hi there. No, you and Cloud got to use your powers. And you just said that I had to include you in the story, not how I was supposed to include you."

Cloud launches into a speech, "You had me and Ririn working against our friends! We would never do such a thing. There is no way that anyone could separate our bonds to our friends and turn us against them. The bonds of loyalty between us run too deep for that. How could you…"

"The point is," Ririn interrupts. "You could have given us a better role. Do you want us to put you back in that classroom…?"

"Eek! No, no I don't. Look, I can't promise you anything for a few chapters, but I swear I'll give you more to do! Just don't send me back there, please!"

Ririn crosses her arms and glares at me as she says, "Alright, but you better be writing us some more interesting parts or you're going to regret it."

"I swear."

Ririn nods and says, "Good. Now, since we've already disclaimed your story, we thought we'd bring someone to do it this week."

Suddenly nne of Nova's portals appears center stage and Kon falls out with a squeak.

"Gah!" he gasps. "What was that for! You dropped me right on my head! You could have just asked for me to come along!"

I bend over and say to him, "Kon, thank you for coming, would you please just disclaim my story?"

Kon grumbles under breath as he brushes himself off. "Alright, alright. Mystica doesn't own Bleach. Now, can you put me back at Ichigo's?" He asks Nova. "Urahara just left me out in the woods and I'm not sure how to get back."

Nova nods and says, "No problem."

Kon falls out of a portal somewhere in the woods again, right in front of a wolf gnawing on a bone. The wolf looks at Kon and licks its lips before dropping its bone.

Kon stares at the wolf and all he can do is gulp at his new predicament.

Chapter 10

When Ichigo returned to the shop, he found that everyone had made it outside and none were hurt any worse than a few scrapes and bruises. Chad was still a little banged up from his earlier fight, but had nearly recovered by now thanks to Inoue. Ichigo found that Rukia had filled Chad in on the information that he had missed while he was healing.

"You all right with all of this, Chad?" Ichigo asked.

Chad nodded and said, "No problem. If it was my loyalty to you, Ichigo, than there should never have been a problem in the first place."

Ichigo slapped Chad on the shoulder and gave him a smile. Chad, being a man of few words, had summed it up completely. Ichigo knew that he could always count on Chad, no matter what. It sometimes scared the substitute Shinigami how devoted Chad was to him, but he knew that the devotion was returned in kind. He just hoped it didn't get his friend in too much trouble in the future. It had already gotten him into enough in the past.

Ichigo turned his attention to the shop. It seemed to not have suffered too much damage in the quake. The front porch was slanted at an angle since the far right supports had buckled and some of the interior had begun to collapse inside. But for whatever reason, the building didn't seem to be crumbling any further and seemed to be fairly sturdy as it was.

"Spirit reinforcement," Yoruichi whispered to Ichigo as he stared at the building.

He glanced back at her with a puzzled look. "Don't ask me to be more specific… you know how vague Kisuke likes to keep his little inventions."

Ichigo nodded. He certainly understood how the man liked to keep whatever he was working on a mystery, even after the results were revealed. Yoruichi's vague explanation was probably the best that any of them would ever get.

"Where is Kisuke?" Yoruichi went on to ask.

"Right here," Urahara said as he walked up behind them. He came strolling forward, swinging his cane while holding onto his hat with the other hand. "My, my," he said, looking at his shop. "What a mess."

"Urahara-san," Inoue spoke up. "Did you find anything out?"

Urahara frowned a second before lowering his hand and took out his fan. He didn't open it though as he spoke. "I did gather quite a bit of information, but it is going to take me some time to sort it all out."

"You saw him, didn't you?" Yoruichi said as she crossed her arms and leaned back.

He glanced at her and then looked back at the building before answering. "Atsushi is an interesting person. We're going to have to be very careful when dealing with him." He opened his fan then and hid the lower half of his face before glancing rather pointedly at Ichigo.

Ichigo decided to ignore the obvious point Urahara was trying to make to him. "Yeah, well he better be careful who he threatens," Ichigo said as he finally returned his Zanpakuto to his back, allowing the binding to rewrap the blade.

Urahara sighed but didn't press the issue. Ichigo was just being Ichigo. There was nothing that he could do to change that fact. "Well now," he said, snapping the fan shut and tucking it away. "I should get started." He began walking towards the shop as he spoke over his shoulder. "I'm sure the rest of you have others things that you could attend to for the moment. We're just going to have to wait until Atsushi makes his next move for now."

Urahara calmly walked into the damaged shop as if there was nothing at all wrong with it. Everyone else exchanged confused glances at what they should do now. Inoue stepped over to Ishida and asked, "Ishida-kun, are you all right? I've barely finished healing you and you were out there already."

He couldn't help but give her a slight smile as he fixed his glasses and replied, "Yes, I'm fine, Inoue-san. You did a very good job healing me."

She smiled back at him, the slightest signs of a blush touching her cheeks.

As they were talking, Rukia went over to Yoruichi. The taller woman was still staring at the door where Urahara had just disappeared with an unreadable expression on her face. Rukia interrupted her train of thought. "Yoruichi-san," she said.

Yoruichi looked down at Rukia. "If you go back to Soul Society, I would like to come with you."

Yoruichi gave Rukia an appraising look before replying. "You're still worried about Abarai, aren't you?"

Rukia lowered he head a little and nodded.

Yoruichi glanced back at the doorway to the shop before looking back at Rukia. "I can understand your desire to be with your friend right now, Rukia. But don't you think that with everything going on, you would be more needed here? You are the only remaining true representative of Soul Society here in the human world after all."

Rukia stared at the ground for a moment before looking up at Yoruichi. She had forced all of the emotion out of her features and had a determined expression as she replied, "You're right, Yoruichi-san. My place is here. I will do my duty."

Yoruichi gave her a slight, sad smile as she said, "duty is sometimes a difficult thing to bare, Rukia." She placed a hand on the top of Rukia's head. "But those of the Shinigami must learn to place it first."

"I understand," Rukia replied.

Yoruichi turned and began to walk away from the shop without another word to Rukia or the others. Rukia watched her go, wondering what had just happened.

"And that, Kisuke,…" Yoruichi said under her breath. "…Is why I can't go with you."

XXX

Seireitei was in an uproar again as another quake began to shatter the recently returned calm. Shinigami were scuttling about, trying to return to their divisions to receive orders on what to do. The ground was shaking so violently that they were hardly able to make it from one place to another. Most wouldn't even be able to reach their bases until well after the shaking had stopped.

Captain Kuchiki Byakuya had just been leaving the fourth division after inquiring after his vice-captain when the quake had begun. He was about to shift into Shunpo and return to his own division to be able to issue orders when he had another thought. For some reason, he felt that he should be where that great crater had formed in the center of Sokyoku Hill that had been discovered after the last quake.

Without another hesitation, he turned and disappeared as he went to investigate to the Hill. He was not surprised when he arrived and found that this was where the disturbance was coming from. Growing from the crater was a white pillar. It was soon taller than the treetops and there it finally came to a stop. All of the violent shaking ended when the pillar stopped its growth.

Byakuya stood there staring at the cold white pillar with a look of indifference, but he felt anything but. He could feel the waves of strange spirit pressure coming off of the pillar and he knew that this was not a good sign for Seireitei or Soul Society.

A few moments passed where everything was quiet except for the sounds of alarms and people rushing about far below in Seireitei. He wondered if anyone else had even bothered to glance this way and see what had suddenly sprung up in the center of their so called protected area.

Seireitei was quickly losing its reputation for being a peaceful, quiet domain that was impervious to intruders. Ever since Kurosaki Ichigo and his band of followers had broken in, Seireitei had been a breeding ground for disasters and mayhem. This was something that Byakuya could not condone. So, though he had forgiven Kurosaki for his intrusion in the past (not that he was ever going to admit it) he was convinced that if it hadn't been for that meddlesome teen, his Seireitei would not be in the state that it found itself in now.

Slowly, about halfway up the pillar, a dark hole began to form. In a few moments, it was large enough to let a man step through. Byakuya narrowed his eyes as he took in the sight of this man. He wasn't a hollow or an arrancar, so that much was good. But he also wasn't anything else that the sixth division captain had ever seen before.

The man stood in the air, scanning the scene before him. It took him a moment to realize that there was someone watching him. As he glanced down, he offered Byakuya a smile and slowly descended from the air to meet him.

"I see I'm not without a welcoming party here as well," he said. "Though I am a little disappointed that there is only one here to meet me. It is rather insulting."

"Who are you?" Byakuya asked without preamble.

"You mean you don't know?" the man said. He looked a little surprised at this, but also found it rather amusing. "The typically spiritually unaware people in the human world knew who I was, but you of Soul Society don't… interesting."

"I asked you a question. Who are you?"

"Well, you're a bit brisk. Kind of like that orange headed Shinigami looking human in the real world. All right, if you insist…" he made a mock bow as he said. "My name is prince Atsushi, second son to the Spirit King himself."

Byakuya felt his eyes narrowing even more in incredulity but he asked, "Were you the one responsible for the injury to my lieutenant in the human world?"

Atsushi thought about this for a moment before asking, "Red hair, big attitude?"

Byakuya nodded once in response. That was as apt of a description of Renji if there was one.

"Yes, that would be my doing. So, he didn't die then?"

"No," Byakuya responded in a flat tone. He wanted to strike out at this man now, but that was not enough to give him cause to attack. "And what is your reason for disrupting the peace of Soul Society?" he asked as if he didn't care that this was the person that had attacked Renji.

"Peace?" Atsushi said as he tipped his head slightly to the side. He looked down into the city below at all of the people scurrying about and the noise that was clattering up to them. "It doesn't seem all that peaceful to me."

"That is because you have disturbed it. And since you have a problem answering questions, I will ask you again, why are you here?"

Atsushi let out a slight laugh before saying, "I only came for a look around. After all, a prince can get pretty curious about the places that he's not allow to go to. I won't stay and take up any more of your time though." He turned and began to ascend back up to the hole in the pillar. "I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again soon though." He stopped at the hole and turned around and looked down at Byakuya again. "You're a captain, are you not?" he asked.

"Captain Kuchiki Byakuya, sixth division," Byakuya replied and drew his sword and held it up in front of him. "And you will not be permitted to return here." With that he muttered the words, "Scatter, Senbonzakura." The air was quickly filled with the glittering pink shards of his Zanpakuto.

Atsushi laughed and swished his hand through the air. The petals that had been on in intercept course with him suddenly parted and went to either side. "Naughty of you, a Shinigami, to attack your god."

Byakuya didn't show any outward emotion at this turn of events, but simply sent his Zanpakuto in again to slice the intruder up. The shards once again parted when they neared the prince, not even leaving him with a scratch.

"You're no match for me, Shinigami. And it is against the rules for you to even attack one from the royal house in the first place. Go back to your little division and take care of your troops. We will meet again soon enough." As Atsushi said this, he stepped back through the hole and it quickly sealed behind him.

Byakuya stood still, staring up at the place where the prince had just disappeared. He called his sword back to him and allowed it to return to its sealed form. He turned and sheathed his sword and set out for the inevitable captains meeting that would soon commence. He had a few things that he wanted to talk about with the Captain-Commander before that meeting began.

XXX

Over the next few days, no one saw or heard anything from Urahara. From time to time, someone would observe Tessai bringing a tray of food into the ex-Shinigami's lab and would return with a few bits of it missing, but that was it. Tessai wouldn't reveal to anyone what was going on in that lab, nor how Urahara was doing.

"I hate this waiting!" Ichigo grumbled to Rukia as he lay sprawled across his bed. The petite Shinigami was in her Gigai, sitting at Ichigo's desk, doodling something. Saturday had rolled around again so they didn't even have classes as a distraction that day.

"Would you rather that we were fighting?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "The more time that nothing happens, the more time that Urahara has to work on our problem. Hopefully when Atsushi does appear again, we'll be ready for him."

Ichigo rolled over onto his stomach and looked at her. "I know. I just hate not knowing when he is going to pop up again or what his plans are. At least with Aizen we knew what was his ultimate goal. With this Atsushi character, we don't have anything but guesses to go on."

"And Aizen managed to surprise us even though we knew what he was after. Being completely in the dark helps to keep us on our edge." Rukia told him as she returned her focus to her drawing in front of her.

Ichigo spared a glance at the paper and winced. Her drawing skills had not improved in the least since he had met her. "Gah," he sighed and rolled onto his back again. "It's bad enough waiting for Atsushi to do something, but then there aren't even any hollows popping up to work some of this frustration off on."

Rukia decided to ignore Ichigo and his complaints. She honestly felt the same, but she certainly wasn't going to admit it to him. She poured herself into her drawing, trying to forget that she was stuck here and that she still didn't know how Renji was doing.

Not long after Urahara had vanished into his shop, not to be seen from again since, Masumoto showed up and said that she was sent over to help out with any problems that might come up in the human world and to let them know that the same pillar/gate thing had popped up in Soul Society.

She apparently made some kind of a report to Urahara as soon as she showed up, but she didn't seem willing to tell them what it was that she told him or what he was up to when she saw him. When she emerged again, she told them about what had happened in Soul Society.

"_It was really strange," Matsumoto said. "One minute we were all rushing about, trying to take care of things from another quake, and the next someone looked up to Sokyoku Hill and pointed out the pillar. I guess the only one that was there when it first appeared was captain Kuchiki."_

"Why was Nii-sama there?" Rukia muttered out loud without meaning too. Her pencil had paused on the paper as her mind drifted towards the events in Soul Society.

"Eh?" Ichigo asked as he picked his head up a little off the bed and looked at her upside down. He clearly hadn't heard what she said, just that she had spoken.

"Nothing," she muttered. "Just talking to myself."

Ichigo gave her a long look before sighing and returned to his staring up at the ceiling. "Hey, Rukia," he said after a little while. "Do you really think that this guy is as dangerous as everyone is making him out to be?"

Rukia sighed before saying, "I don't know, Ichigo. What is frustrating me the most is that I can't do anything directly about him." She ground her teeth before muttering, "He can attack Shinigami because he has gone rouge, but we can't lay a hand on him."

"That's bullshit," Ichigo snapped at Rukia as he sat up and propped himself up on his arm to look at her.

She stared at him in shock. "You sound just like your idiot brother with that talk, Rukia. Sure, the rules say that you can't touch him, but screw the rules! What does it matter if he's some prince and you're a Shinigami? If he attacks you, you have the right to defend yourself, regardless of what those so called rules say!"

"Ichigo…"

"If Atsushi comes after you, I want your promise that you will do whatever it takes to defend yourself, Rukia!" Ichigo snapped at her.

She stared back at him in silence for a moment. He was completely serious. She realized that he was right; she was acting just like Nii-sama had when she had first been taken into Soul Society to be executed. He had been so obsessed with following the rules that he wouldn't follow what his own heart was telling him to do. That was something that Ichigo never had a problem doing. If he saw a path that he believed was right, that was the one that he would take, regardless of what anyone else told him.

Then Yoruichi's words echoed back to her…

"_Duty is sometimes a difficult thing to bare, Rukia. But those of the Shinigami must learn to place it first."_

What was more important in this case? Her duty to the rules of the Shinigami, or her own life? When she looked Ichigo in the eyes again, she still didn't have an answer for herself, but she knew what she had to say to him at least. "I'll watch out for myself, Ichigo," she told him. That seemed to mollify him and he flipped over with an exasperated sigh to stare up at the ceiling.

"Geez, you Kuchiki clan are all so difficult…"

XXX

It was late that night at the Kurosaki house when Kon finally dragged his ripped and torn body through Ichigo's window. He fell onto Ichigo's bed with a grunt and nearly passed right out. He probably would have if he hadn't startled Ichigo out of his own sleep and found himself punted across the room to smack into the wall.

Poor Kon slipped down the wall to plop upside down on the floor. He didn't even have the strength to yell at Ichigo for being so mean. Ichigo sat up in bed and looked around for whatever it was that had just disturbed his sleep. He heard Kon's moan as the plushy fell forward and landed face first, prone on the floor beside the wall.

"Kon?" Ichigo cried as he got out of bed and went over to where the mod soul was now lying. Ichigo snatched him up off of the floor and turned him over to look at. "Where have you been and why are you so beat up?"

Kon looked up at Ichigo in a half daze for a moment before he burst into tears and began to explain in a rush. "It was horrible Ichigo! I was watching Chad like Urahara-san told me to and then this happened and that happened and Urahara showed up and took Chad and Ririn away and just left me out there! You wouldn't believe what I have had to go through to get back here! First I was taken…"

But Ichigo cut him off by clamping Kon's mouth closed and muttered, "Shh." He was no longer directing his attention at the plushy but towards his bedroom door. Once Kon had quieted, he realized that he could hear the slight muffled sounds of a girl crying somewhere on the other side of the door.

"Yuzu!" Ichigo suddenly cried and dropped Kon flat on the floor as he rushed for his door. He knew that it had to be Yuzu because, besides the fact that Karin doesn't cry, she was staying at a friend's house that night. That meant that Yuzu was alone in their room right now.

Kon landed with a squeak and took a moment to rub his sore behind before muttering about plushy abuse and got up off the floor to follow after Ichigo. Just as Kon reached the door, he heard Yuzu scream.

Kon ran into the hallway just in time to see Ichigo rip open his sister's door and rush inside her room. "What the hell!" Ichigo cried once he was inside her room. Kon rushed down the hall and followed Ichigo inside. He didn't have long to take in the scene before Ichigo reached down and snatched him up, shoving his hand down the plushy's throat.

Before Kon knew what was happening, he was yanked from the plushy body and suddenly found himself in Ichigo's again. Now he was able to get a good look at what was going on, but he still didn't understand what he was seeing.

Yuzu was lying in her bed with a great, black serpent wrapped around her chest. The head was right in her face and seemed to be inhaling some blueish-green mist from Yuzu's nose and mouth. She still looked as if she were asleep, but having a terrible nightmare as she trashed and cried unintelligibly.

Ichigo grabbed his Zanpakuto from his back and swung it at the serpent's head. But the thing seemed to have amazing reflexes because it quickly ducked under the slash and released Yuzu from its coils. Before Ichigo could make another attack on it, it slithered under Yuzu's bed.

Ichigo dropped to the floor and reached down after it, but his hand met nothing and when he looked, there was no sign of the snake at all. It was as if the thing had completely vanished.

Rukia suddenly ran into the room in her Shinigami form, sword drawn and ready to fight. "Ichigo!" she snapped, seeing Ichigo lying on the floor, reaching under the bed. They were all so distracted checking under the bed that none of them noticed the black butterfly that was fluttering through the shadows and out the open window.

"Ichi-nii," Yuzu muttered as if she was just waking up. She looked up and her eyes settled on Kon. She didn't seem to even notice that Ichigo and Rukia were there.

"Ah, Oh, Yuzu," Kon said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I thought I, ah, heard you cry so I came to, ah, check on you," he stuttered, trying his hardest to make himself look and act like Ichigo. That was never an easy task for him.

"Oh, I'm all right," she said as she sat up in her bed and rubbed her eyes. "I just had a bad dream was all."

"Oh, that's good," Kon said as he started to back out of the room. "Well, if you need me, you know where I am."

"Thank you, Ichi-nii," she replied to him. He stepped out into the hall and waited for Ichigo to get out of the room before closing the door.

"Good work, Kon," Ichigo told him as he headed back to his own room. Rukia and Kon followed him. After they had all filed in, Ichigo shut the door behind them and quickly explained everything that had just happened to Rukia.

"Have you ever heard of that thing before?" Ichigo asked her when he had finished describing it to her.

Rukia thought a moment before replying, "I know I've never seen anything like it, but it does sound vaguely familiar. I just can't think of what it is though."

"So it might not be anything new then?" Ichigo asked.

Rukia shrugged, "I don't know, Ichigo. Like I said, it sounds familiar, but I don't know for sure. We should ask Urahara about it tomorrow. That is, if we can pry him from his lab for long enough to listen."

Ichigo sighed and plopped on his bed, still in Shinigami form. "I guess I should be careful what I wish for. I wanted something to do, and now there's some weird snake thing sneaking into my house and giving my little sister nightmares… what next?"

XXX

Ichigo was looking pretty sleepy still when he emerged the next morning to join his sisters at the breakfast table. Apparently their dad was already out for the day and Karin had made it home her friend's. "Ichi-nii," Karin said as he plopped down at the table with a huge yawn. Yuzu quickly put a plate down in front of him and began to dish out the scrambled eggs that she had made.

"Did you hear about all the strange deaths last night?" Karin asked.

"Deaths?" Ichigo asked as he reached for the cup of coffee that Yuzu had just poured for him.

"It was on the news. There was a bunch of people that seemed to die in their sleep last night all over town. No one knows what happened, just that they all just stopped breathing at some time in the night. And it didn't matter who or how old they were or anything."

Ichigo slowly lowered his coffee cup from his mouth without taking a sip. He looked up and noticed that Rukia was standing in the kitchen doorway, listening to the conversation. They exchanged a look before she turned and went back to Ichigo's room. Ichigo sat the cup down and got up. "Sorry Yuzu, I've got run," he told his sister and quickly left the room himself.

Yuzu watched Ichigo leave with a sad expression on her face. "Don't worry about it, Yuzu," Karin said as she took a bite of her own breakfast. "You know Ichi-nii, he's probably late for something or other."

Yuzu just nodded and started to clear Ichigo's spot. When her back was turned, Karin glanced over her shoulder towards the window just in time to see Ichigo and Rukia in Shinigami form running from the house after exiting through his bedroom window. "Be careful, Ichi-nii," she muttered and then returned to her breakfast.


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: Welcome back every one! This is a long one, so please bear with me. More explanations in the beginning, but we're going to return to some action by the end. Thanks for reading and reviewing so far and please continue!

Disclaimer:

"Ok, time to pick another disclaimer. Who haven't I called on yet? How about Inoue?"

Inoue pokes her head out on stage rather surprised.

"Oh, Mystica-san…" she says. "I already disclaimed that week you were, ah, missing…"

I blush as I say, "Oh, yeah, I forgot… Thanks again for that, Inoue." I have to clear my throat before continuing. "ok, well… how about…"

Suddenly Yoruichi's voice calls from off stage, "I'm still watching those reviews, Mystica!"

I gulp before saying, "oh, well, ok, so, let's see…"

Now Matsumoto prances on stage.

"Hello! If you need someone, I could disclaim for you. After all, I don't have much else to do now that you trapped me in the real world."

"Oh yes, that would be great, Matsumoto-san. Please do!"

She smiles and then leans out to show off her cleavage as she begins to talk. "Hello everyone! I really haven't been around much at all for this one, have I? Strange isn't it that someone as wonderful as me would be left out of the picture so much…?"

I interrupt with a warning tone, "Matsumoto…"

"Anyway! Back to what I'm here for! Mystica does not own Bleach… and a good thing too or I would die from boredom."

Chapter 11

"Alps," Urahara said plainly to the group that had gathered around his table. He looked fairly haggard and worn out, but he had emerged from his lab when he had heard the reports of what had been happening in town. It didn't take long for everyone else to hear about it either and they naturally all gathered at his shop to try and get to the bottom of the mysterious deaths.

"Alps? As in the mountains in Europe?" Ichigo asked rather confused.

Urahara shook his head. "No, the mountain range is named for these creatures, so I guess you're not that far off. They appear in Germanic fairy tales mostly, but they are quite real," he explained.

"What are they?" Rukia asked.

"That's a little more difficult to explain. In the first place, even those from Soul Society would debate whether they actually exist or not. They never appeared in Soul Society and so many there believe that they are just some fairytale that the humans came up with. Of course the stories were brought over to Soul Society when souls that that had heard them passed on."

"That's why that thing sounded familiar," Rukia said. "I had heard someone telling some story about one of those things, but I didn't remember what the name had been. Actually, I'm not sure I heard the name."

"Perhaps not," Urahara said as he pulled out his fan. He began to wave it reflexively beside his face as he continued to talk. "The strange thing about the Alps is that no one knows where they come from. They aren't like anything that we are familiar with such as hollows, arrancar or even the Bount."

"Do you think this is an attack from Atsushi?" Matsumoto asked.

Urahara closed his fan and pointed it at her, "Correct," he said. "There is no doubt that it must be. The prince has access to untold dimensions and so he would be the most likely candidate for coming up with such an obscure creature."

"Bur what _are_ they?" Ichigo asked.

Urahara sighed and replied, "I don't know, exactly. Really the most information that we have on them comes in the form of fairytales so it's difficult to say for sure what they can and cannot do. But what all of the tales seem to agree on is that they are shape shifters, they cause nightmares, and can kill a human in their sleep. Beyond that is mere speculation."

"And what more do you speculate about them, Urahara-san?" Ishida asked.

He nodded towards Ishida and pressed on, "I believe that it is likely that they cause the nightmares in order to increase a person's spirit pressure. All humans, even those with no gift at all, have at least some amount of reiatsu and when a person is afraid or in danger, whatever amount they have is pushed to its maximum. Once the Alps have gotten the human to release as much energy as they can, they devour it. Whether or not that is what causes the human's death or they simply strangle the person to death afterward, I have no idea."

"So if I hadn't found Yuzu…" Ichigo said quietly.

Urahara looked at Ichigo sympathetically before gently nodding and saying, "Yes, your sister was lucky that you heard her. She could have wound up like the others through out town last night."

Ichigo didn't have anything to say to that. He simply sat there and stared blankly at the table in front of him.

It was Inoue that broke the silence next. "What can we do about them, Urahara-san?" she asked.

The ex-Shinigami shook his head sadly as he tapped the fan against his lips and said, "Right now, I don't know. As I said, there is very little information to go on with these creatures. And, for the moment, I simply don't have the time to start researching them."

"What do you mean?" snapped Ichigo. "Those things killed almost fifty people last night. They nearly killed my sister! Shouldn't they be more important right now?" 

"Ichigo…" Rukia said softly to him, trying to calm him down.

Urahara simply returned his gaze without flinching in the heat of the substitute Shinigami's glare. "What do you think is more preferable? Allow me to continue my research into locating and getting to Atsushi so we can eliminate the root of our problem faster, or focus on those few deaths now instead of saving not just this world, but all of the other dimensions as well?"

Ichigo stared back at Urahara, not sure what his answer would be. He hadn't thought of it like that, but now that he was, he still couldn't decide what would be better. He hated the idea that anyone would have to die before they were able to stop Atsushi, but he understood what Urahara was trying to tell him. "I… I don't know," Ichigo finally said.

"Well I do," Urahara replied with an edge to his voice that the group was not accustomed to hearing. "We all have to make difficult decisions when facing a war, Ichigo. You know this already, but you are still led by your heart. Luckily I am not." With that the shopkeeper stood up and looked down at a rather stunned Ichigo. "I know you think me heartless to make this decision, but it is our only chance. I cannot take time to worry about the Alps when I am so close to finding what we need to take out their master. You are going to have to worry about the small fries on your own for the time being." With that he turned and left the room in a stunned silence.

XXX

A short time later Urahara was once again cloistered in his lab. He didn't hear the door open but he heard the voice that addressed him from the doorway. "So, Kisuke," Yoruichi's voice echoed into the room. She was leaning against the door just inside, watching as Urahara worked with his back to her. "Now you see how difficult it is to choose between what needs to be done and what your heart wants to do."

"Please," he spoke softly without looking back at her or breaking from his work. "Go away, Yoruichi-san."

"You can't ignore me forever, Kisuke," she said as she allowed a scowl to cross her face.

He sighed and said even softer, "No, but I can for now. I have nothing to say to you right now, Yoruichi-san. Please, just let me get back to work."

Yoruichi scoffed as she walked into the room. "Work… Who ever would have thought that the lazy Urahara Kisuke would ever use his work to hide behind? This isn't like you, Kisuke."

"Then tell me, what am I like?" he finally snapped as he whirled around in his chair and glared up at her. "What is it that you want from me? What do you think I should be doing? What should I have said? What should I say to you? You seem to have all of the answers when it comes to what I should be like, so please, tell me what I ought to be doing!"

Yoruichi stopped dead in her tracks and stared back at her friend. She tried to think back if there was ever a time that he had raised his voice to her in such a way before and she was quite certain that he never had. Not only that, but she couldn't remember a single person that had ever spoken to her like that in her very long life. She was Shihoin Yoruichi… heir to the great Shihoin family, rightful but now former commander of the Onmitsukido and former captain of the Second division… No one had ever dared to speak to her in such a way in her life.

Yoruichi, for once, couldn't think of a single thing to say to Urahara. "Kisuke…" she said, trying to figure out what had just happened.

"I think I asked you to leave, Yoruichi-san," he said to her and turned his back to her and began to work again.

She stared at his back for a while before she shook her head and slowly left the lab. She closed the door softly behind her and transformed into her cat form, leaving a pile of her clothes just outside the door. She looked back at that door for a second before she turned and quickly leapt out the nearest window and left the shop entirely.

Urahara heard the door slide shut behind her and he sighed to himself. He was shaking slightly after the outburst that he had given her, but he did not feel bad about it. She had been born a princess and so she had never been told before that she didn't have a right to other peoples' lives. This was probably the first time that anyone had ever told her off like that, and Urahara was convinced that it was something that she needed to hear. He just wished that it hadn't been him who had had to tell her.

XXX

After the rather awkward ending to their meeting, the rest of the group broke up. Ichigo took Rukia and headed out into the town, hoping to possibly stumble across something significant in regards to the new threat of the Alps. Rukia tried to explain to Ichigo that it was unlikely that something that liked to attack its victims in their sleep would be about during the day, but Ichigo couldn't sit still a minute more and needed to feel like he was doing something.

Chad had quietly dismissed himself and disappeared before anyone knew where he had gone. The only one that had noticed him leaving had been Nova. The mod soul also slipped out, and followed the teenager.

Matsumoto had been about to find her Gigai again to take it out for some shopping, but she caught a glimpse of the retreating Nova. "Where's he off too?" She asked herself and slipped outside behind Nova. She saw Nova disappear through one of his portals as soon as he was outside.

"That's strange," she muttered. She was fairly sure that she wasn't going to be able to figure out where he was going if he was using his teleportation skills, but then she saw Chad turning the corner at the end of the alley. She remembered that where Chad went, often Nova would be following. "I wonder what those two silent ones are up to now…"

She quickly decided that going on a little covert ops might be a bit more fun than going shopping again. Probably not much more, but a little bit. She leapt up into the air and took to the rooftops, trailing after Chad. She realized as she went that Nova would occasionally pop back into their dimension somewhere down at street level, always out of Chad's perception. "So he's following Sado… this could be interesting. Nova's following Sado and I'm following both of them."

Back at the shop, Ririn and Cloud both decided that they would change back into their plushy bodies. "Hey, Cloud," Ririn said as she opened her eyes in her bird body. "Where'd Nova go?"

Cloud looked around with his huge rabbit eyes and shrugged with his ears saying, "I don't know. He disappeared soon after Urahara-san left."

Ririn scowled before saying, "He's always running off like that without telling any one. He's far too silent for his own good." But she didn't seem to be too concerned because she hopped up onto the table and lay down on her stomach in front of a magazine. She opened it up and began to leisurely flip through it.

Cloud hopped up beside her and watched her flip the pages for a moment before saying, "Shouldn't we go look for him? We're supposed to be a team after all and I can't help but still feel a little worried about him after those people over in Soul Society captured us. I was really quite worried about you and Nova you know. I…"

"…Don't worry about him, Cloud," Ririn interrupted. "Nova is quite capable and none of us were in any real danger from the Soul Society jerks. They were just using us to test the others. They wouldn't have _actually_ hurt any of us."

Cloud wasn't too sure about that, but he plopped down on the table beside Ririn and looked at the magazine over her shoulder.

XXX

Outside of the shop, Inoue stopped Ishida as he began to head off by himself. "Ishida-kun… What do you think we should do?"

He looked back over his shoulder at her. He was hesitant to tell her what he had planned. He was well aware that if she knew, then she would insist on going with him. He sighed to himself a moment, realizing that if he was being honest with himself, he probably shouldn't go alone. Besides that, it seemed that everyone else had already disappeared on them and Inoue had been left at loose ends again. It was obvious that this type of treatment was starting to wear thin on the girl who wanted to be helpful to her friends more than anything.

There was no guarantee that what he had planned was going to find trouble and he did like to spend time with Inoue. He nodded to himself before turning around and facing the girl. She was standing there, lightly holding her bottom lip in her teeth as if she expected him to not answer her. _At what point in our attempt to protect Inoue-san did we begin to shut her out?_ He thought to himself.

"Inoue-san," he said to her as he walked back to where she was standing. "I was thinking… If these Alps are being sent from Atsushi, then it would make sense that they are getting here by the same means that he did."

She looked at him a moment before gasping and saying, "You mean the pillar in the park?"

Ishida nodded. "He said that he was leaving it up so that it would be easier to cross into this world later. So it would make sense that that was also how he sent the Alps last night."

"So you think that if we were to watch the pillar, than we might be able to catch the Alps before they can hurt anyone!" she exclaimed.

Ishida noticed that she had jumped right in with saying "we." He adjusted his glasses and nodded. "Would you like to come with me tonight, Inoue-san?"

"Oo!" she exclaimed. "You mean like a stake out! Oh, I can make up some coffee and donuts for us. I'm sure I have some interesting things to top the donuts with."

Ishida tried to keep himself from cringing at that thought and managed to offer her a smile, "That would be nice, Inoue-san," he told her to try and spare her feelings. "I'll come by your apartment at sun down and we can head to the park together."

She smiled brilliantly at him and nodded, "Great! It's a date!" With that, she turned and ran off towards her place. "I have a lot of cooking to do before then!" she exclaimed over her shoulder as she ran.

Thanks to her rushing off, she completely missed Ishida's slight blush that her date comment had given him. He shook off his momentary discomfort and then headed back for his own place. He also had a few things that he wanted to do before the night fell.

XXX

Nova stepped out of his most recent portal to find that Chad had finally stopped. The teen had returned to where Urahara had rescued him from just a few days ago. Nova, of course, didn't know this, but he suspected that that might be the case. He had heard from Ririn what had happened and how she had been forced to test Chad with visions of his grandfather.

The Mod Soul hung back behind the trees and watched Chad walk forward into a clearing. The boy walked out and knelt down in the middle of the area and bowed his head. Nova was confused for a moment but then he could hear that Chad was speaking softly. He realized that Chad was probably speaking to his deceased grandfather.

Nova felt a little sorry for having intruded on Chad when he was obviously dealing with something very personal. The mod soul was just about to leave when he sensed something shift in the spirit particles not that far away. It felt very different from anything that he had ever sensed before, yet it was very distantly akin to the feeling that he had when a Bount was nearby. But, whatever it was, it was getting closer.

Chad was startled as Nova suddenly appeared beside him. He stood up and asked, "Nova?"

Nova didn't look at him but rather back from the direction that he had just been. "Something's coming," was all the mod soul said.

It was all that Chad needed to know. He also turned around to look in the direction that Nova was staring and held his right arm out to the side, morphing it into its armor covering. The two stood there, completely silent for a moment, before they saw a man step through the trees into the clearing. He was a tall, muscular man with a beard and mustache that was mostly black but with streaks of gray and white running through it. His hair was just long enough to be able to see that it had a slight wave to it, also sporting the salt and pepper look. He had a black cloth wrapped around his forehead that dipped down and covered his right eye completely. His left eye, though, was just a bright green orb with no evidence of iris or pupil.

"So, you're not alone as I had thought," the man said as he stood at the tree line and looked both Nova and Chad over. He stood with his arms crossed as he obviously measured them with his single, unnerving gaze.

"Who are you?" Chad asked him.

The man was silent for a moment before he took a step forward and said, "My name is Jan Zizka, Servant of Atsushi."

"What do you want?" Chad said.

"I have been sent here to eliminate you." He turned his gaze on Nova and said, "You can leave now if you wish. I was sent only for the other."

Nova simply stood his ground and glared back at Zizka.

The man shrugged after a moment and replied, "Suite yourself." He took a step forward then and made a gesture with his arm. A wave of earth suddenly sprung up below his now outstretched arm and quickly rushed forward towards Nova and Chad.

XXX

"Ichigo, there's nothing that we can do right now, why don't we just return to your home and wait until night?" Rukia argued as they continued to walk down the street.

"I can't just sit at home and wait, Rukia." He replied. "I need to be doing something."

"Even if that something is just aimlessly wandering around town?"

He ignored her and continued walking. They were nearing a park and for whatever reason, Ichigo decided to enter it. They hadn't walked very far inside when Rukia suddenly gasped and stopped, throwing an arm out and stopping Ichigo as well.

"What is it?" he asked her.

"Something is here," she said cryptically as she began to scan over the area. The park seemed to be deserted for the most part with only one or two people walking along the path to their right. Other than that, Ichigo didn't see anything.

"I don't…" he began but stopped when he watched a man seemingly step out of thin air in front of them.

He was of middling height and rather slim. He had a narrow face that appeared all the more narrow by the long, black, curly hair that hung down past his shoulders. His eyes were completely dark blue orbs and stared hollowly at them.

"Who the hell are you?" Ichigo demanded as he pulled his Zanpakuto off of his back and pointed it at the man.

"You must be Ichigo, the human with Shinigami powers," the man said to Ichigo.

Ichigo narrow his eyes and said, "So what if I am? I asked who you are first."

The man continued to ignore Ichigo's question and turned to look at Rukia. "You are a friend of his, I presume."

She nodded a reply.

"Then I have no quarrel with you. You may leave now if you wish."

Ichigo stepped forward and said, "If you want to fight me, then go ahead, but stop ignoring my questions!"

The man looked back at him as Rukia muttered, "Ichigo…" in frustration.

"My apologies. My name is Eugene Savoyard, servant to the great Atsushi."

"So, you were sent by Atsushi," Ichigo said, gripping his sword tighter.

The man inclined his head and said, "That is correct. It is his wish that you are eliminated." He looked at Rukia again and said, "This is your last chance to leave, lady."

"I don't think so," she replied and drew her Zanpakuto.

"Don't worry, Rukia. I'll take care of him," Ichigo said and then launch himself at the man. Out of no where, a wall of ice met Ichigo's charge, solidifying around his sword so that it was wedged in place.

"Too easy," the man replied as he appeared at Ichigo's right with a katana of his own in hand. He swiftly slashed across at a height and angle to separate Ichigo's head from his body.

"Ichigo!" Rukia cried out a warning as she launched herself at Savoyard but she knew that she was going to be too late to stop the swing.

XXX

Ririn and Cloud were still sitting on top of the table looking at the magazine together when a sudden blast of fire shot through the open door to the shop behind them filled their room. Both of the mod souls screamed as they leapt from the table to the floor and ducked underneath the table.

Ririn spotted a plume of flames on Cloud's back an immediately began to pat them out with her wings.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" Cloud muttered as Ririn extinguished the flames.

"Hold still, Cloud!" she yelled at him as he tried to move around to get at the flames on his back himself. He stopped his movements and allowed her to finish putting them out. By the time she was finished, they saw that most of the room had now caught fire around them. Bits of flaming debris were beginning to fall from the ceiling and struck the table above them. It was quite apparent that they were now trapped inside the room.

"What do we do?" Cloud cried as he used his ears to cover his face from the smoke.

Ririn stared around wildly, not having a clue what they were going to do. If they were in their Gigais they could have just run through the flames, taking the burn damage to their bodies, but their spirit pills more than likely would have been fine if they just kept moving and made it out of the fire. But in these extremely flammable bodies that they currently wore, they would instantly incinerate, destroying their spirit pills along with the plushy bodies.

Not knowing what else to do, Ririn took a deep breath and cried, "Heeeelp!"

No sooner had she let out her cry when the door to the rest of the house burst open and Tessai leapt into the room. He didn't seem to notice the flames that were beginning to lick at his skin as he spotted Ririn and Cloud under the table and reached down, scooping them both up into his arms.

Once he had a hold of them, he paused in the middle of the room as the flames swirled all around. "What are you doing?" Ririn cried.

She looked up at him and he had his eyes closed and his lips were moving slightly. Suddenly he opened his eyes and pressed his palms together. As he slowly struggled to pull them apart, a yellow cube of light appeared around them, blocking out the flames. The further his hands spread, the further outward the yellow shield pushed the fire. It extinguished the flames as it went, soon leaving them in a fire free room.

"Tessai-san?" Ririn asked. She could see that he was still concentrating on expanding the cube shield even though the fire had been put out in their room.

After a moment, he dropped his hands and took a deep breath. "Let's see what's going on," he said and then went outside. The mod souls could see now that Tessai had completely surrounded the shop in his shield.

Ririn peeked out from Tessai's large arm at the flames that licked along the cubic shield that the man was holding up against the attack. The flames began to shrink back from the area just in front of them and a man stepped out from the conflagration.

It took a moment for Ririn to be able to clearly see the man against the bright glare from the flames behind him. He was a young, slim man with an almost angelic looking face. He had bright red hair flowing just past his ears and was holding a ball of flame in each hand. He also had eyes that were completely red.

"You aren't the one I was sent for," the man said as he spotted Tessai still holding up the shield around them. The man spoke with a soft, almost gentle voice that strangely seemed to slice through the roar of the flames all around them. "Where is the man with the hat and cane?" he asked.

Just then Ururu and Jinta came spilling from the house, the latter wielding his club and the former dragging her massive gun along with her. She took aim at the man on the other side of the shield but didn't do any more than that since she knew that her missiles would be unable to hit him while Tessai held up the shield.

"Well, I was sent for the other man, but it looks like I have found a few more interesting subjects to play with."

"Go back inside, kids," Tessai told them. He had beads of sweat breaking out on his face and Cloud and Ririn could feel his muscles as they trembled with the strain of holding up such a large and powerful shield against such a massive attack of flames.

Jinta scoffed at Tessai and said, "You don't think we're gonna let you have all the fun now?"

"Ururu! Jinta!" Urahara's voice sounded as he suddenly appeared from the ash-covered doorway. "Take Tessai and go downstairs!"

"Ah, there you are…" the man said when he caught sight of Urahara. "You're the one I was sent for… though I think it would be best to take out your friends as well."

Urahara ignored the man and came up to stand beside Tessai. He put his hand on Tessai's shoulder and said, "It's all right, my friend. Get inside. I'll take care of this now."

Tessai nodded his head once and said, "As you like, boss."

Jinta and Ururu came up to stand beside him and each took one of his arms and helped the large man back into the house. Urahara turned and faced the man commanding the flames for the first time. "If you were sent for me, then you can have me," he told the man.

The man slowly grinned at Urahara and said, "Your destruction is what I was ordered to do. The others will be for pleasure."

XXX

Ishida looked out his window and saw that the sun was beginning to set. He decided that he should start heading over to Inoue's to meet her. He had already changed into his Quincy uniform and strapped on his Seele Schneider, preparing for what they might encounter that night. He went out and was walking down the sidewalk when he stopped as something brushed against his senses.

He stood still, knowing that there was someone there, but he just couldn't quite grasp on to their presence. Suddenly he felt a ripple in the air behind him and he spun around, calling out his bow as he did so.

A man stepped out from the air itself and looked at him with appraising eyes. He was tall, barrel chested man with a bushy red hued beard. A mustache bloomed over his upper lip and came down either side of his mouth to rest on top of the bushy beard below. His red hair was long and fell around his should, also blending in with the beard. But the thing that stood out most about him were his two, white, soulless eyes. There was no evidence of pupil or iris, just too white orbs. But, it was obvious that he was still able to see as he looked right at Ishida and said, "So, you're it, huh?"

"It?"

"You're the Quincy in whom the boss seems to be so interested. You don't look like much. But you did seem to sense me before I stepped out, that's better than I would have thought possible."

"Who are you and what do you want with me?"

"I am Fredrick Barbarossa, servant of lord Atsushi. I was sent to find out just how good you are. He seems to be quite taken with you."

"Why me?"

"You're a Quincy. Let's just say that he had a certain interest in your kind. He wants to know how good the so called last of the Quincy is."

Ishida narrowed his eyes and looked at the man, wondering what it was that he was after. It didn't seem very likely that the son of the Spirit King would be all that interested in a Quincy. Was there something else behind this?

Suddenly Ishida felt both Chad's and Ichigo's reiatsu flare up. Somewhere in the distance they were facing opponents of their own.

The man looked off towards where Ishida could sense Ichigo. "Yes, Atsushi wanted to try out your other powerful friends as well. But, luckily for you, where as my comrades were directed to finish their opponents off, I was just sent merely to gage your abilities. I have no plans of killing you today."

"But my friends are meeting deadly force?"

He nodded, "If they don't prove to be too difficult, they will be killed."

"In that case…" Ishida said as he brought his bow to aim at the man, "I will have to finish you off quickly to go and help them."

The man laughed at him. "Brave words, but I don't plan on making this easy for you to walk away from. I may have been told to leave you alive, but I wasn't told in which state to leave you."

Suddenly a blast of air stuck Ishida in the face, nearly knocking him over. He kept from flying back by ducking and shielding his face with his arm while bracing his legs. Even so, he felt his entire body being slid back by the force of the wind.

"There isn't much of you, is there?" the man said, taking a step towards him.

The wind slackened just enough to allow Ishida to stand upright again. He brought up his bow and quickly shot off an arrow at the man coming towards him. The arrow had left on course, but Ishida had been a little shocked when it suddenly deviated from the path he had set it on. It arced to the left and sailed past the man's shoulder.

"You're using arrows against one who controls the wind… I don't see how you could possibly hope to hit me with those."

Ishida launched himself up into the air and suddenly appeared on the other side of the man and shot of a volley of arrows at his back. These arrows didn't get deflected by the man's ability to move the air, but he did suddenly disappear out of the rain of the arrows. He was off to Ishida's left now, eyeing him with a little more respect.

"So, you're fast. I hadn't expected that much either."

"I'm sure I have a lot of surprises for you."

Suddenly a blast of fire erupted into the air off to Ishida's right. It was several blocks away, but Ishida realized that it had probably come from Urahara's shop. As he realized this, he could sense that the ex-Shinigami was also in the middle of a fight. It wasn't often that Urahara was forced into the fray, but apparently he too was being targeted tonight.

Barbarossa glanced off towards the flames and sighed as he shook his head. "Otto is getting carried away again," he muttered to himself. "He can't do anything without making a scene."

"If Urahara-san is his target, then I would think that your friend would have to use everything that he has," Ishida said as he suddenly appeared behind the man again and fired off another volley of arrows.

The man vanished again to reappear only a few meters away to the right. Ishida could see that he had surprised the man when he materialized again. "I'll admit, Quincy, you are far faster than I would have thought possible of a mere human. But I assure you, I won't make that mistake again."

A second later a blast of wind struck Ishida in the chest, hurling him backward and slamming him into a tree trunk. His breath was momentarily knocked out and his vision clouded with dark starbursts. Even disoriented, he managed to shift out of the way of another blast of wind that had been meant to drive his body even further into the tree.

He had rolled off of the trunk and was kneeling on the ground as fragments of bark were sprayed over him from where the wind struck the tree where he had been. He was rather surprised at the level of force that this man was able to create from just the air. Quickly he clambered to his feet and vanished from Barbarossa's sight again to reappear close to the man's left. But the man seemed to have anticipated this move this time and was already reaching out towards Ishida and sending another blast of air.

This time it was such a narrow piece of air that it created a slice across Ishida's chest as it knocked him back. Gasping, Ishida put a hand over his chest and assessed the damage that he had just taken. The slice wasn't dangerously deep, but it was bleeding quite heavily. That blast of air had felt just like a sword slicing through his skin.

The Quincy finally realized just how dangerous fighting against someone who had control of the air itself was. But he realized something else. If he moved fast enough and in an unpredictable way, the man didn't seem to have very good reaction time.

Ishida began to move rapidly all around Barbarossa. He would vanish from sight and then suddenly reappear at a different location. Every time he stopped, he fired off several arrows before shifting on to another spot. Barbarossa would send another blast of air towards wherever Ishida appeared, but the Quincy would be gone before the blast reached him.

Suddenly Ishida appeared directly to the man's right and as he prepared to fire an arrow, a blast struck him again. This time it sliced deeply into his left arm, causing him to lose the arrow that he was about to fire.

"You should have varied your pattern more, Quincy," Barbarossa said as Ishida stumbled back. He was forced to dismiss his bow and hold onto his left arm to try and keep it from bleeding too much.

"I admit, I was careless on repeating my moves. But I did learn something important."

"And what would that be?" the man said with a slight sneer on his lips.

"That my speed is much greater than yours. You aren't controlling the wind directly, but rather the spirit particle in the wind. I also manipulate spirit particles, but I do so directly. Your method takes a little time to work. That slight delay is enough time for me fire and be out of the way again as long as you aren't able to predict where I am about to fire from."

The man's sneer turned slightly amused as he said, "You are quite good. No one else has ever been able to figure that out. But it doesn't matter. As long as you keep fighting at a ranged distance, I can still react quick enough to deflect your attacks. If you get too close, I can simply slide out of this dimension for a second and come up somewhere else out of the way. So it would seem that we would be at an impasse. That is, if this were the extent of my abilities."

Barbarossa then reached his arm out and pointed a finger at Ishida. At first, Ishida didn't notice anything. But then he felt his chest slowly deflating even though he was trying to take a breath. He struggled to gasp, but the air seemed to be simply leaking from his lungs just as fast, if not faster than he was able inhale.

He dropped to one knee as his vision began to swim. He couldn't figure out how he had become incapacitated so quickly just by lack of air. He was capable of holding his breath for several minutes, but it was only a matter of seconds now and he could hardly stay conscious.

"It's not just the air in your lungs, Quincy," Barbarossa said as he started to slowly walk towards Ishida. "I'm drawing out the air in your entire body. Soon, there won't be anything even in your blood to keep you alive."

Ishida's other leg gave out and he crashed to the ground, gasping to no avail as he desperately tried to think of something.

Ishida continued to gasp and choke on the ground as the man came closer and closer. "How far should I take this Quincy? Much longer and you'll have brain damage. Maybe I'll leave you as a vegetable. Maybe then you won't even realize that you have lost friends today when my brothers finish with them." The man was now standing over Ishida.

The Quincy's eyes were beginning to close and his struggles for a breath were growing weaker. "Now, last Quincy," Barbarossa said as he reached down and grabbed Ishida by the back of the neck and lifted him up off of the ground. He held the young man in front of him and stared at him with those white, soulless eyes. "Look at the one that has brought you to this."

Suddenly a Seele Schneider was protruding from Barbarossa's chest. The stunned man looked down at the glowing blade that had run him through with bewildered surprise. His eyes ran up the length of the hilt and saw Ishida's left hand holding it in place.

Barbarossa looked up again at Ishida and saw that the Quincy was having no trouble breathing now and looked completely fine. "How…?" he muttered as he took a step back while releasing his grip.

Ishida touched his feet to the ground and then pulled his blade free from the man. Barbarossa staggered backward and put a hand over his gaping wound all while still wearing a stunned expression as he stared back at Ishida.

"I remembered that you controlled spirit particles, not the actual air. That meant that you were messing with the particles inside of my own body and that is something that I know how to manipulate as well," Ishida explained. "All matter, including air particles, are bonded with a spirit particles. In order to use those spirit particles in the real world, I must break that bond. You are unable to break the bond between the particles so when you move one, the other has to follow. All I had to do was break the bond so you were only drawing out the spirit particles of the air and not the air itself. I was only breathless for a moment before I figured out how to stop what you were doing. Then I simply pretended that you had me so that you would get too close to be able to pull away before I could attack."

A slight smile began to spread across the man's face as he took another step backward. "You are far more talented then I ever would have imagined. Lord Atsushi will be very interested in what I have to report." He seemed to fall backward then, but as he fell, he appeared to slip out of reality entirely. A moment later, Ishida was standing on the side of the street alone.

He looked down at the slice across his chest and then at the slash on his arm. That one was quite deep and it was going to affect his ability to fire his arrows accurately until it was healed. Looking up, he could no longer see the flames around the shop, but he could sense that all three of his friends were still engaged in their fights.

What made it worse was all of them were spread out over the town. There was no way that he was going to be able to help all of them. That meant that he was going to have to choose.

"Ishida-kun!" he heard Inoue's voice call from down the street. He looked and saw the girl running towards him. "Ishida-kun! Are you all right?" she asked as she neared him.

"Inoue-san!" he exclaimed as she came to a stop beside him. "I'll be all right, but could you quickly heal my arm?" he asked her.

She nodded and brought out her healing fairies. As they set to work on not just his arm, but the wound on his chest as well, she spoke quickly to him. "Ishida-kun, I was at home and I could feel you, Kurosaki-kun, and Sado-kun all in trouble. I was just heading out when I saw the flames at Urahara-san's shop and sensed that he was also in trouble. I didn't know what to do, but you were closest so I came here first."

"I was attacked by one of Atsushi's men, as are the others. But I managed to defeat mine already," he explained to her.

"We have to help the others!" she exclaimed as she recalled her fairies now that they were finished healing Ishida.

"Yes, but which one?" Ishida said as he turned from her and faced the direction of the shop. "We can't go to all of them."

Inoue looked off in the direction that Ichigo and Rukia were in the opposite way while Ishida turned from the shop to face out towards Chad's location.

"We can split up," she told him.

He looked at her and said, "Inoue-san, I don't think that is a good idea. The others are all being specifically targeted by Atsushi's men. If one of them were to come after you while you were on your way to one of our friends…"

"It doesn't matter," She snapped at him, startling him with the force of her words. "Look, Ishida-kun, I know that I'm pretty useless on my own. But I can help them and we need to be of as much help as we can!"

He looked at her a moment and realized that she was right. He didn't like it, but she was right. "All right," he said. "I'll go and help Sado. He's further away and I can get there faster. Ichigo and Kuchiki-san aren't that far from here. You should go help them."

"But what about Urahara-san?" she asked.

"I think he can take care of himself and he has everyone else that stayed at the shop to help him already."

Inoue frowned and then nodded. "Ok. Be careful, Ishida-kun," she said and then turned and took off at a run towards the park where Ichigo and Rukia were.

He watched her go and then said quietly, "Be safe, Inoue-san." He turned then and launched himself off towards the place where he could sense Chad was still in trouble.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: Hey all, sorry about the delay for this chapter. I've been making a few revisions and going on vacation and such. But I hope to get back on schedule now. Thanks for your reviews and favorites and please continue. Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer:

I step back out onto the stage, "Welcome back everyone! How about we hear from Chad this week for our disclaimer."

Chad stands center stage looking rather confused.

"Hey, a, Chad, could you disclaim my story for me this week?"

" … Wasn't I just somewhere else?"

" Yeah, don't worry, I'll put you right back. I just need you to tell everyone that I don't own Bleach first."

" You do not own Bleach."

With a shrug I say, "good enough. Thanks Chad!"

"No problem."

Chapter 12

Urahara eyed his opponent sharply through the haze of the shield and the glare of the flames that still licked the edges of the shield all around the shop. The man on the other side grinned back on the other side. "So," The man said. "Are you going to have your friend take down this shield so we can fight, or am I going to have to burn my way through?" With that, the flames intensified all around except for directly in front of Urahara where he faced the stranger.

Urahara gave a slight wince but quickly schooled his features again and stepped forward as he spoke. "Tessai is no longer holding the shield. I am." With a wave of his hand, the cubic shield began to shrink back. With in moments, Urahara was outside of the shield even as the flames continued to rage against it all around him.

The stranger laughed and said, "You are far more powerful and tricky that I had thought you would be. I suppose I can at least give you my name before I turn you to ash." He made a mock bow as he said, "I am Otto Eine."

"Is that name supposed to mean something to me?" Urahara asked as he brought his sword from the sheath of his cane. It transformed into its unsealed state almost as soon as he had drawn it.

"Probably not, I just thought you might like to know who was about to kill you."

"That is quite considerate of you. Unfortunately," Urahara raised his sword so that it pointed directly up to the sky in front of his face. "You are mistaken on your assumption. Perhaps I should be so kind to give you my name for the same reason."

Otto laughed and said, "I don't care much, one way or another. I had thought to take my time with you. But clearly I should finish you off quickly for such arrogance." With a sweep of his arm, Otto peeled a wall of flame off of the shield and sent it racing towards Urahara's back.

Without even looking, Urahara swept his sword behind him, forming his blood mist shield between him and the flames, and then slashed it back into its starting position while sending a blast of red energy at Otto's face. The flame controller gasped in surprised a second before he suddenly vanished from sight to avoid being hit by Urahara's attack. As he vanished, his flames also disappeared.

It was only a split second later, however, that the man reappeared to Urahara's right and sent a blast of fire at him. Urahara was suddenly no longer in that place and Otto nearly missed him reappearing at his own right shoulder to send another song blast from Benihime.

A wall of flame met the red energy blast. The two forces met and canceled each other out, but the resulting explosion blinded Otto, forcing him to lose sight of his opponent. Before he knew what had happened, a creeping rope of yellow Kido wound its way around the man's body and was suddenly yanked backward, pulling him onto his back.

With a wave of his arms, however, the Kido rope snapped and he was able to roll out of the way of Urahara's next sword stroke. He then slipped out of the dimension and disappeared all together for moment. All of the residual flames extinguished at that moment and Urahara was left slowly turning in place, searching for the place that the man was about to reenter that plane.

Urahara suddenly turned around and held his hand up in front of him. "Bakudo number 81," he said. "Danku."

Just as he spoke the name, a gap opened up in the space in front of him and the man was about to step through again. But he walked straight into the severing void that Urahara had just placed right over his entrance into the human world.

"I have a friend that can move through dimensions much like you," Urahara said to Otto through the barrier. The red head glared back at him from the other side of the void. "He can only exit and enter his dimension with his portal. If it is blocked and held open, then he is trapped behind it."

A slow grin spread along Otto's face before he spoke, "Then your friend is limited in where he can travel to." He took a step back then. Urahara's Kido kept his entrance to the human world open, but the man simply exited where ever he was and then tried to enter back into the human world from another point.

Urahara sensed this reentry just in time to spin around and block that portal as well, but now he was holding up two powerful Kido walls while maintaining the shield around the shop. He was beginning to visibly weaken as he leaned on his sword pointed into the ground.

"You can't block as many entrances as I am capable of using," Otto said before stepping back again and slipping into another dimension.

This time Urahara dropped both of the Kido walls as soon as Otto vanished again and turned to face the next entrance point. He could feel it ripple a second before it opened. But as soon as the gap appeared, he realized that he had been tricked. There was no one there but now he could feel a new rippling immediately behind him.

A burst of flame shot from the new gap before Urahara was able to turn around. Luckily, he had begun to bring up his blood mist shield as the flame hit him. It sent him flying, though, and some of the flames managed to lick around the edges of his not quite completely formed shield and scorched his shoulders, catching his black jacket on fire.

He didn't allow himself a moment though, and tossed his jacket off and shot a blast of Kido at it, sending the flaming cloak right back into Otto's face. The man immediately turned it to ash with a flick of a finger before it could reach him. But he was surprised to see Urahara directly behind the cloak, charging at him with Zanpakuto at the ready.

The flame master didn't have time to slip out of the human dimension or to use his flames to block Urahara's attack this time. With a wicked slash, Benihime cut deeply diagonally across Otto's chest. The man was tossed into the air with the force of the slash. Urahara had already used his Shunpo to position himself above Otto and met his ascent with a downward slash, smashing him back into the ground below.

A plume of dust and debris erupted from the impact and blasted outward in a rush. Urahara came to a gentle land several yards from the impact site and waited for the air to clear again. When it did, Otto was still standing in the center of the crater, but he didn't look like he was in very good shape.

He was holding onto the gash across his chest while blood poured from another deep wound across his forehead and ran down either side of his face. He was panting heavily where he stood and from the looks of it, he wouldn't be standing for much longer.

"You…" the man said to Urahara as soon as he spotted him. "…Are far more powerful than I had thought possible." He swallowed and took another breath before continuing. "I assure you, I will not be making that mistake again." With that he took a shaky step backward and vanished through another gap that appeared just then.

Urahara watched him go and then waited a few more moments, seeing if he was about to make another sudden appearance. When it appeared that Otto would not be returning at the present time, he suddenly sagged where he stood, leaning again on his sword. With a wave of his hand, the shield around the shop disappeared.

After a few breaths, he straightened again and turned towards the shop. But just as he took a step in the direction of the entrance to his sanctuary, he felt a sudden shift in the spirit particles in the distance. With a sigh, he turned and then leapt into the air again. "No rest for the weary," he sighed as he raced across Karakura town.

XXX

_"Who are you?" Chad asked the man that stood in front of him._

_ The man was silent for a moment before he took a step forward and said, "My name is Jan Zizka, Servant of Atsushi."_

_ "What do you want?" Chad said._

_ "I have been sent here to eliminate you." He turned his gaze on Nova and said, "You can leave now if you wish. I was sent only for the other."_

_ Nova simply stood his ground and glared back at Zizka. _

_The man shrugged after a moment and replied, "Suite yourself." He took a step forward then and made a gesture with his arm. A wave of earth suddenly sprung up below his now outstretched arm and quickly rushed forward towards Nova and Chad._

Chad held his arm out to transform, but the process was going to take a split second too long. Nova opened a portal that engulfed both him and Chad, taking them out of harm's way just before the wall of earth struck them.

They reappeared several yards away. But no sooner had they stepped out of Nova's portal than two walls of rock came flying at them from the left and right. Chad turned and brought a full force punch to bear on the wall to their right just as Nova was about to move them again. But before he could do so, a voice was heard from the trees behind them.

"Growl, Heiniko." A sheet of ash descended from the trees and the wall on the boys' left turned to dust before it could reach them.

"What?" Zizka said as he turned and looked up into the trees. Matsumoto jumped from a lower branch then and stood in front of the tree, facing off to him.

"Matsumoto-san," Chad said, rather confused why she would have been out there too.

"Sorry for following you, Sado," she said, never taking her eyes from their enemy. She held the hilt of her sword out and allowed the ash from her Zanpakuto to form back into a Kanata. "But we can talk about that later."

Chad nodded and then also turned to face Zizka.

The man looked at his opponents and said, "So, you think you can out number me?"

A slight rumbling in the ground was the only warning that came before several pillars of rock shot out from below. Two of them shot out at Masumoto while three went for Nova and Chad. Chad punched out one and then another while Nova simply teleported out of the way of the one coming directly for him.

Zizka gave a slight smile before he too disappeared. "Sado!" Masumoto called and started to run towards him. She thought that they might have scared the man off. But a moment later, Nova's portal opened again directly between Matsumoto and Chad. But it wasn't just Nova that emerged.

Zizka stepped out of the red portal holding a struggling Nova by the throat. "I can play that game too," he said to Nova.

"Nova!" Chad exclaimed and took a step towards them.

Zizka turned and looked at Chad and said, "I wouldn't if you value your friend's life."

His gaze quickly shifted back to Matsumoto, bringing her own forward motion to a halt as well. Nova was grabbing at the hand that clutched his throat, trying to pry it away as he gasped for breath. "Let him go," Chad said.

"I have no desire to kill him," Zizka replied. "But I will destroy anyone that interferes with my mission. "

"Then I will fight you alone," Chad said.

"Sado! No!" Matsumoto replied. "I can't let you do that."

"Matsumoto-san," Chad said. "I don't wish for you two to get hurt for me."

"That's not your call, Sado," she said and then launched herself at Zizka. Heiniko dissolved into ash as she flew towards them, rushing in front of her like a wall.

The ash separated around Nova as it reached them and formed around Zizka. But he tossed Nova aside and brought up a perfect cylinder of rock around him, effectively blocking Matsumoto's attack.

"Nova!" Chad exclaimed as he rushed over to where the mod soul had fallen.

"I'm all right," Nova said as he got back up to his feet. "Matsumoto-san was right to attack. He can't kill me like that."

Chad nodded as he remembered what Nova had told them before about only destroying his spirit pill would kill him. Damage done to his Gigai would have no permanent damage to him.

By now Matsumoto had reached their side and they all turned and faced the pillar of rock. "He's not there," Nova suddenly said and turned around to watch their backs.

"Nova," Matsumoto said. "He seems to be able to teleport like you. Can you think of a way to stop him?"

"No," Nova replied. "His ability is different than mine. I can only teleport through my own dimension, he can move through any it seems."

"Well," Matsumoto sighed. "This certainly brings back memories." She scanned the area, searching with more than just her eyes, for any sign of their enemy reemerging into their dimension. "Do you know why he's after you, Sado?" Matsumoto asked.

"No," Chad replied. "But he said that he's with Atsushi."

"There!" Nova cried and pointed to a position. Just as Zizka stepped back out into their air, Nova created a portal that sent him away again. "In front of you," Nova said and then deposited Zizka just in front of Matsumoto and Chad before the man could step into his own dimension from Nova's.

Matsumoto sent her ashes from her sword swirling around Zizka and Chad punched him hard in the stomach, knocking him backward and sent flying through the air. But he never hit the ground as he vanished from their dimension again.

"This is getting old," Matsumoto said, pulling her Zanpakuto back to her.

A strangled cry came from Nova behind them as he suddenly fell through a gap in the air and disappeared. Apparently Zizka didn't much care for him messing with his own portals. "Nova!" Both Chad and Matsumoto cried and tried to reach out to grab him before he vanished, but they were too late.

While their backs were turned, Zizka emerged again from behind and sent wicked spikes of rock shooting up from the ground at them. Chad managed to pulverize the one aimed for him, but Matsumoto only managed to dodge slightly, taking the spike in her shoulder instead of her through the middle of her back.

She cried out in pain as she struggled to release herself from the rock that now impaled her shoulder. Chad turned and quickly pulverized that rock as well and then they both leapt back, out of the way of another spike that had sprung up between them.

They were both forced to keep running and dodging as more and more spikes were driven up through the earth at them. Chad knocked more than a few of them out of the way, but they just kept coming.

Matsumoto leapt up into the air and used her Shinigami powers to stay there, hoping that she could avoid being targeted that way. Once she seemed to be out of the danger zone, she looked over to where Chad was trying to both dodge the spikes and get closer to their attacker in order to fight back. She either needed to attack Zizka or draw his attention so that Chad would be able to do something.

As she decided that she could be of more use now that she was airborne, she realized her mistake. A spike of earth erupted from the ground below where she was but then detached from the ground and was launched at her position. She was forced to dodge it along with the subsequent others that followed.

Finally, Zizka seemed to get tired of the dodging game and stopped. Matsumoto quickly descended and stood beside Chad. He had taken several close calls with the spikes and so had several minor cuts and bruises, but he was fine so far.

"Sado, are you all right?" Matsumoto asked him.

He nodded to her as he brushed off some dirt from his shoulders. He looked at her and pointed at the wound in her own shoulder. "Are you?"

"I'll be fine," She said as she used her hand to cover her injury. She then turned and looked back at Zizka.

He was looking at them very seriously, as if appraising what he saw. "I'll admit," he said after a while. "You are faster and tougher than I was led to believe. But no matter, I'll just have to try a little harder."

As they stood there, wondering what he was about to do, there came a great rumbling in the ground beneath them. "Come on, Sado!" Matsumoto said and grabbed him before launching into the air. The second that her feet left the ground the entire area erupted below them. The ground churned up, sending a spray of rock and dirt up after them. It quickly overtook their ascent, pelting them with the debris at high velocity.

A large rock struck Matsumoto in the shoulder where she had already been pierced and she lost her grip on Chad. She cried out and tried to reach for him again, but in the explosion of dirt, she couldn't see him and was getting tossed about too badly herself to be able to orient herself properly.

Finally, when the dust had settled, she was hovering in the air, griping her now broken and bloody shoulder. She stared downward, dreading that she was going to see Chad's broken body below, probably partially buried in the rocks. But as she scanned the area below for any sign of the teen, she couldn't find a trace of him.

"It looks like I was just in time," Matsumoto heard a voice say off to her left. She looked and saw Ishida hovering beside her on a disk of compressed spirit particles. He had Chad's left arm draped over his shoulders, supporting him there. Chad looked like he had taken quite a beating from the explosion of earth. His head hung limping on his shoulders, but he clearly wasn't unconscious yet. He was holding his ribs tightly with his right hand that was no longer covered in his armor. Blood was dripping from the area of his face onto the disk below him. His hair hung down, obscuring Matsumoto's vision of where he had been struck, however.

"Ishida! Thank god!" she exclaimed as she came over to them.

"You, Quincy!" Zizka called up to them. "What happened to Barbarossa? Why are you here?"

"I defeated him," Ishida called back down.

"Impossible!" Zizka screamed and suddenly a rock was launched at them from the ground.

Matsumoto gasped, afraid that Ishida wasn't going to be able to avoid it while he was holding Chad like that. But Ishida had no intention of avoiding it. He pulled a Seele Schneider from his belt and brought it up between himself at the rock. The rock sliced in two and split to either side of them as it went.

Zizka glared up at the sight for a while. They could clearly see the wheels in his head turning as he contemplated this new turn of events. "I believe," he said after a while. "That I should return to Lord Atsushi for now. These events are not what he had predicted and he may wish to alter our plan when he hears of this. Good day, for now." He then stepped backward through a gap that opened behind him.

"Wait!" Matsumoto cried as she launched herself down towards him. "What about Nova!" she reached the ground just as the tear closed, sealing him off from them.

"Nova?" Ishida asked as he also descended and gently placed Chad on the ground beside him. As soon as his feet were on solid ground, Chad tried to pull away from Ishida to stand on his own. The Quincy released his hold, but then reached out and used a hand to steady him as he began to topple over.

"I'm fine," he said as he finally looked up at them. Blood was pouring from a blow to on the right side of his forehead and his nose. The nose was obviously broken and at an odd angle. From the way that he swayed where he stood and kept blinking, he probably was having extreme difficulty focusing on his surroundings.

"No you're not," Matsumoto snapped at him.

"What happened to Nova?" Ishida asked again.

"That man…" Matsumoto quickly explained as she pulled some cloth from her sleeve and went over to Chad. She started wrapping his head wound the best she was able to with having a busted shoulder while she talked. "…He came up behind Nova and pulled him out of our dimension. He could step from our dimension to any other, at least that's what Nova told us. There's no telling where he took him!"

Just then, there was a slight noise to their left. They all looked just in time to see a red portal opening up in the air and Nova collapse through it before it slammed closed again. "Nova!" Matsumoto exclaimed and would have run over to him, but Chad had also tried to head in that direction and started to fall over again. She braced him and then helped him to sit on the ground.

When she turned back, she saw that Ishida had gone over to the Mod soul and was now turning him over on the ground. "Nova?" he asked.

He was breathing heavily and didn't seem able to move. "Urahar…" the mod soul croaked before he completely passed out.

Ishida looked up towards Matsumoto and Chad. "We should all head that way anyway," she replied as she tied off the wrap that she had placed around Chad's head and then pulled his arm over her shoulders. "I'll bring Chad, you get Nova," she said.

"But can't you tell?" Ishida asked. "Ichigo and Kuchiki-san are also battling. Inoue-san just went to help them. Urahara-san was also in a fight but I can't sense him anymore."

Matsumoto swore under her breath before she looked at the Quincy again and said, "We'll have to go back to the shop and see what's happened. These two need attention."

"No," Chad said as he tried to pull away. "Ichigo needs help…" He managed to get his arm back and he made a very good impression that he was able to stand on his own now as he looked at them.

"Sado, you're hurt. You probably have a pretty bad concussion. You aren't going to be able to help Ichigo," Matsumoto said to him.

"I can." He clenched his fist and his armor formed over his arm. "Take Nova; we'll help Ichigo."

"Sado."

"It's all right, Matsumoto-san," Ishida said as he carried Nova over to her. He added softly for her only as he placed the mod soul in her arms. "I'll take care of him."

She hesitated a moment but knew that there was going to be no arguing with Chad when there was someone that he needed to protect. She could remember how determined he had become when they were fighting to free Ururu from the Bount. "Alright," she said. "You better hurry."

Ishida nodded to her and then went over and wrapped an arm around Chad again. "Let's go," he said and then they both disappeared from sight. Matsumoto sighed and then also disappeared, heading in the direction of Urahara's shop.

XXX

_"Don't worry, Rukia. I'll take care of him," Ichigo said and then launch himself at the man. Out of no where, a wall of ice met Ichigo's charge, solidifying around his sword so that it was wedged in place._

_ "Too easy," the man replied as he appeared at Ichigo's right with a katana of his own in hand. He swiftly slashed across at a height and angle to separate Ichigo's head from his body._

_ "Ichigo!" Rukia cried out a warning as she launched herself at Eugene but she knew that she was going to be too late to stop the swing._

But Ichigo turned and saw the man and drew his sword through the ice as if it were nothing just in time to parry the blow meant to kill him. The man, Savoyard, seemed to be slightly surprised by this but quickly flowed right into another attack. The ice wall now behind Ichigo suddenly returned to water and fell to the ground in a splash just as Rukia reached them. She drew back her sword to swing at the man's exposed back, but suddenly the water that was now around her ankles froze again, locking her in place.

"Getsuga Tensho!" Ichigo cried and released a blast of energy from the end of his Zanpakuto at the man. Suddenly he slipped out of their dimension but the energy wave that passed through shattered the ice all around them, freeing Rukia.

"Ichigo, be careful!" she exclaimed as the blast came close to hitting her instead.

"Sorry Rukia," he said but wasn't really paying attention as he slowly turned around, wondering where the man had gone to. "Do you hear that?" he asked after a moment.

Rukia paused and listened. She realized that there was a rumbling noise coming towards them and was growing in volume the closer that it got. She gasped as she turned around then and saw a wall of water rushing towards them over the tree line.

"Ichigo!" she called out and then drew her sword in front of her. She twirled it around and a white ribbon grew from the pommel and swirled around her. "Tsugi no mai, Hakuren," she said and then stabbed her sword into the ground in front of her four times. A wall of glowing white ice grew up from her position and rushed up to meet the wall of water that was bearing down on them. She could see now that Savoyard was riding on top of the wave, arms spread wide, grinning at them.

Rukia's wall of ice was slightly smaller than the water that came at them so when it contacted with the water, it froze the wall as high as it reached. The rest of the water spilled over the wall of ice and splashed down towards them, carrying Savoyard along with it. He rode the water as if he were a part of if.

He held his sword out as he sailed down the curve of ice, gaining speed as he went. Rukia leapt out of the way of the blade just before he reached her but Ichigo stepped forward and brought his own blade up to meet Savoyard's.

There was a clash of steel as the blades met and Savoyard was sent sliding off to the right. He maintained his stance though and easily skated around to face Ichigo again. "You're strong and she's fast," he said. "But neither of you are any match for me."

The ice around Rukia reverted back to water and rushed upward around her. She shot up into the air, trying to avoid it, but more ice melted and added to the skyward traveling torrent until it finally overtook her and engulfed her inside, freezing instantly.

"Rukia!" Ichigo cried as he saw what had happened. He then turned and launched himself at Savoyard. "Bastard," he growled. "Let her go!" His sword clashed against the man's repeatedly. But every time that he thought that he had gotten around Savoyard's defenses, he was met with another expert parry.

Suddenly a blue blast erupted from the column of water that Rukia was trapped in, sending a spray of steam and hot water all over them. Rukia fell back to the ground, coughing but quickly regaining her feet.

"Kido?" Savoyard asked as he looked at her. "You must be a Shinigami then. I was told that your kind were unable to make it to the human world."

"I was already here," she said as she took up a stance against him again.

He looked between the two of them and then shrugged. "No matter, I can take you both on if that is what you wish." He held out his hand then and spun around as he drew his arm back towards his body. As he did this, all of the ice melted. But instead of splashing to the ground it rushed forward, sweeping Rukia closer before depositing her beside Ichigo. The water then began to swirl around the two of them until they were completely surrounded by a whirlpool of swirling water.

Ichigo stabbed his Zanpakuto into the torrent, but it did nothing to stop the rushing water and nearly pulled the blade from his hand. "Rukia," he said. "Can't you freeze this so we can get through?"

"I don't think so," Rukia said as she stared up at the wall of turbulent water. "He has direct control over it. Even if I did, he would melt it again too quickly and I would have added to the water that he has to work with in the process.

The walls were now swirling even closer to them, pushing them closer and closer together as their space narrowed. Water was also beginning to collect at their feet and slowly rise. It was nearly up to Rukia's knees by now.

"Damn it," Ichigo cursed and then said, "Hang on, Rukia."

She looked over her shoulder at him, wondering what in the world he was about to do. He reached down and grabbed her and then said, "Bankai!"

Rukia gasped with the rush of power that suddenly surged around them, momentarily forcing the wall of water outward. But it didn't break the swirling vortex in the least. Ichigo, now in his Bankai form, shot upward, carrying Rukia. The column of water stretched up with him, keeping him inside of it but it clearly was not moving fast enough to keep up with him. The hole in the water above was getting closer and it looked like they were going to be able to reach it.

Suddenly the air all turned frigid and the walls of water solidified around them. Starting from the top of the now partially frozen column, razor sharp shards of ice began to break off from above and rained down on them. But it wasn't just ice falling at them; it was propelled and deliberately aimed in their direction.

Ichigo was suddenly reminded of the time that he had fought with Byakuya shortly after he had attained his Bankai. The shards from the Shinigami's swords had been just as numerous and persistent as these ice shards. "Hold on," he said to Rukia and used his impressive speed from his Bankai to avoid nearly all of the shards that were flying at him.

By the time he broke through the top of the column into the air above, he had managed to pull through with only taking a few scratches and had one shard protruding from his right shoulder. "Ichigo, are you all right?" Rukia asked him.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said as he pulled the shard from his shoulder and looked all the way back down at the man that was trying to kill them. He released his hold on Rukia and she stood there beside him, also assessing the situation.

"Who is he?" Rukia said, more to herself than anything.

"The enemy, that's all that matters," Ichigo replied.

She rolled her eyes at him and said, "I know that, Ichigo. But what is he? He isn't a Shinigami. He's not controlling the water with that sword. There is no power coming off of it. He seems to be controlling the water directly, but how?"

Ichigo crouched slightly and said, "I'll let you figure that out, Rukia. While I take care of him." He then launched himself at man that was still standing on the ground, seemingly waiting for them to finish talking.

"Ichigo!" Rukia called after him, but it was far too late to try and stop him.

Savoyard smiled up at Ichigo as he flashed through the air between them like a missile. As Ichigo flew downward towards his target, more, larger blades of ice detached from the column that Ichigo flew down beside. Ichigo didn't see this as the shards didn't flake off until after he had passed.

Moments before Ichigo reached the enemy, he sensed the danger that was drawing in on him. He looked back and saw that the ice was just about to find its target. Savoyard had already moved and Ichigo was barreling towards a blank space of ground while closely pursued by the spears of ice.

"ICHIGO!" Rukia screamed again when she saw that he was in serious trouble. But her cry came just as he hit the ground and created a crater of debris that obscured her vision. She launched downward towards the impact sight.

As the dirt began to settle, she could see that Ichigo was kneeling in the center of a large crater in the ground that he had created. The blades of ice were scattered all around him, rammed into the solid pavement of the sidewalk. But Ichigo was unharmed by the ice in the center. A triangle of yellow light was hovering overtop of his head that had deflected the deadly ice spears.

Rukia gasped and looked around. Inoue was standing at the entrance to the park, hands still raised to the sides of her head where her hairclips rested. "Inoue!" she said and headed for the girl.

Suddenly Savoyard was standing behind Inoue. "Another player?" he said.

Inoue looked up and over her head to see him glaring down at her. She gasped and turned around. She took a hurried step backward and tripped in the process so that she was now sitting on the ground staring up at him.

"Inoue!" Ichigo cried as he finally shook of the daze of the impact and saw what was happening. He got up and launched himself at her.

He snatched her out of the way just as a wave of water melted off of the ice column and rushed through the space where she had just been sitting. Ichigo reappeared beside Rukia and stood Inoue up next to her.

"Inoue, how did you know?" Ichigo asked her.

"I could sense you. I found Ishida-kun first though. He went to help Sado-kun and I came here."

"Sado?" Ichigo gasped.

Rukia nodded, "I sensed it as well. Both Ishida and Sado have been engaged in other battles, as well as Urahara I think."

Ichigo appeared both shocked and troubled by this revelation but was cut off from saying anything by a crack of thunder above them. The sky had been clear only moments ago, but now dark clouds were quickly rolling in overhead.

"If he can control water…" Rukia said when she saw the clouds. "…I would guess that he can summon clouds that are mostly made up of water. If those clouds begin raining…"

"Then he will have a lot more to throw at us," Ichigo said as he turned back to face their opponent.

"Inoue, use your shield to protect you and Rukia. I'll take care of this guy." He brought his hand up to his face then and pulled it down, drawing on his hollow mask as he did so.

"So, you're finally going to take me seriously?" the man called out to him. "You are full of surprises I see."

Ichigo didn't say anything as he suddenly shot out towards the man. Just as he launched himself, huge drops of rain began to fall from the sky. The water splashed down on the ground with far more force than is natural for rain.

Inoue gasped and threw her shield up above her and Rukia. The water was pounding into the shield and driving it lower and lower. Rukia and Inoue crouched beneath it as Inoue held her hands upward to try and direct her shield to repel the watery assault.

Ichigo didn't slow down in the least as he flew towards his target. He dodged in and out of the raindrops that splashed all around him. When they hit the ground, they would crack the pavement and leave craters in the dirt. Tree branches were snapping off from the pelting and falling to the ground as well. Ichigo dodged all of these obstacles without missing a step.

For the first time, Savoyard finally appeared to be ill at ease when he saw that he wasn't causing Ichigo any damage and wasn't even slowing him down. A second before Ichigo hit, the man stepped out of the real world dimension. The second that he did, the remaining water in the air collapsed to the ground in a normal splash and the clouds cleared instantly.

Ichigo came to a grinding halt right where his target had been only a moment ago. But as he did so, Savoyard appeared again in nearly the same spot. With his katana, the man reached out and stabbed Ichigo through the stomach before vanishing again.

Ichigo doubled over and retched up blood as both Rukia and Inoue raced towards him. "Wait!" Ichigo coughed to them as he held a hand up and straightened up as best as he could. He placed his free hand over his wound and slowly turned around.

Savoyard stepped out into their dimension again, immediately behind Ichigo's back. But this time Ichigo spun around so fast that the man hardly had time to register that he had been deeply sliced across the chest before he fell backward through the same gap that he had just been stepping through.

Ichigo waited a moment more, knowing that the wound he had just delivered had been serious, but not immediately fatal. A few moments later, the man stepped out again. This time it was from a much further distance and he didn't seem at all prepared to fight this time. He was clutching the bloody slash across his chest now as blood poured from the wound. He was breathing heavily while he eyed Ichigo from across the park. "I was not prepared for your level," he gasped. "But I will be next time…" he stepped backward again and vanished from existence.

A/n: All right, now you all let me know what character you would like to hear the disclaimer from next week? Either PM me or add your vote to your review and the one with the most will appear next week! Thanks!


	13. Chapter 13

A/N: Welcome back all! Well, since I received no requests for who to give the disclaimer this week, I've decided that there isn't much interest in my silly little project and will discontinue it.

Thanks again for reading and reviewing!

Chapter 13

Ishida was racing across the town towards the small park where he knew Ichigo and Rukia, and now Inoue, were. He was gripping Chad and carrying him along with him, using his Hirenkyaku to speed them both towards their friends. Suddenly Ishida stopped in mid air and paused a moment, looking off to his left.

"Ishida?" Chad asked him.

"The pillar…" Ishida said. "Something is happening."

"Ishida… Ichigo…" Chad said.

Ishida consider a moment and then said. "I'm sorry Sado, I think that Ichigo will be able to take care of himself with Inoue-san and Kuchiki-san there. If something is happening at that pillar, something dangerous for the whole town might occur."

Ishida turned and was about to take off towards Karakura Park when Chad grabbed his arm and said, "Put me down then. I'll go help Ichigo."

Ishida gaped at him and then shook his head. "No, I promised Matsumoto-san I would take care of you. I can't let you run off by yourself when you're in this condition."

"Ishida…" Chad tried to argue, but the Quincy had already adjusted their course and set out again.

"I'm sorry Sado, but the best way to help now is to make sure Ichigo can concentrate on just what is in front of him and not get distracted by this new threat," Ishida explained.

Chad remained silent. He knew that Ishida was right, but he hated that they were going away from the place where Ichigo was fighting. He felt that he ought to be there, not going to find more trouble.

Ishida suddenly came to a halt just as the pillar came into sight. There was someone standing in between them and the pillar already. The breeze ruffled the blond fringe that was held in place by a green and white stripped hat.

"Urahara-san!" Ishida exclaimed.

Urahara glanced over his shoulder at them and nodded. "I'm glad that you are both all right and came to check up on things." He said. His tone was in his normal easy manner, but Ishida could hear a slight edge of weariness behind the words.

"Urahara-san, are you all right?" Ishida asked. "I didn't sense your presence until just a second ago and I know that you were attacked back at the shop not that long ago either."

"Yes, I'll be fine," he said as he turned his attention back towards the pillar. "I just wasn't sure what I would be meeting when I got here and tried to mask my presence."

A gap was beginning to open up in the side of it. From deep inside the black gap, a howl could be heard. "Hollow…" Urahara sighed. He slashed his Zanpakuto out to the side, releasing it back to its Shikai form.

"Hollow?" Chad asked. "They were supposed to be cut off from our world."

"It seems…" Urahara said as he began to slowly walk towards the pillar now. "…That Atsushi can open up bridge for them. I would assume that he is interested in our abilities now that we have all passed his first test."

"All?" Chad asked as he looked back in the direction that he and Ishida had been traveling when they were on their way to help Ichigo.

"Yes, I think Ichigo was hurt, but his opponent was injured in the process before he fled," Ishida quickly explained. "Inoue-san should be healing him right about now."

"We're going to have to take care of this for now," Urahara called back to them. The first hollow was just emerging from the gap in the pillar. Urahara drew back his sword and called, "Sing, Benihime." An arc of red whistled at the hollow and sliced clean through its mask. The hollow disintegrated just as more of them poured from the hole behind it.

Ishida quickly got to the ground and placed Chad there before drawing his bow out and aiming up at the hole. The next several hollows met a hail of blue arrows, snuffing them out just like their leader. Between Urahara, Chad, and Ishida, the tide of constant hollows that poured from the opening didn't get past the clearing in the park where the pillar stood for some time. But the flow seemed to be endless and they were all tiring quickly.

Urahara, who was fighting in close combat just beside the entrance, was knocked back by a particularly large hollow and took a slash from a claw across his chest. He staggered back a step before charging in again, but a few hollows had managed to get by him. He was just turning around with is hand held out to try and mop them up with some Kido when a hail of red shot upward towards the escaping hollows, taking all of them out.

Urahara looked down and smiled as he saw Ururu standing there with that innocent vacant expression, holding her huge gun up at the hollows. Jinta and Tessai were coming up behind her. Suddenly Matsumoto appeared in the air next to Urahara. "Growl, Heineko," she cried. The ash from her sword swept forward and tore the next wave of hollows apart.

"Thank you for joining us, Matsumoto-san," Urahara said as he launched into another attack on the next wave.

"I sensed the hollows just as I arrived at the shop," she explained as she slashed the hilt of her sword around, directing the flow of ashes. Another group of hollow suddenly howled before they too vanished after being cut to shreds.

"I left Nova there with Ririn and Cloud. He was injured by some thug of Atsushi's."

Another volley of Ishida's arrows sliced through the next group of hollows and when the debris from that attack cleared, there was silence. The gap in the side of the pillar remained empty.

"Is it over?" Matsumoto asked as she called her ashes back to her sword.

"No," a new voice said from above them. They all directed their attention higher and saw Atsushi standing above them, looking down. "But that's enough for now. You have helped immensely in getting rid of a large portion of the small fry hollows. Your affairs in Hueco Mundo have already taken out most of the upper level ones. That means taking over there will be far easier." He gave them all a mock salute before stepping backward and vanishing from the sky.

"Damn him!" Matsumoto exclaimed. "He used us to do his dirty work."

"So it would seem," Urahara said as he continued to stare up at the place where Atsushi had been. "So it would seem…" he muttered again as he shook his head before turning to head back towards his shop.

XXX

Ichigo was sitting outside of the shop when the others returned with Inoue beside him, using her fairies to heal his wound. The glow from her healing field illuminated their way to the shop now that the sun had finally completely set. "Ichigo, are you all right?" Matsumoto asked as she approached.

"Yeah, he was a bit faster than I had expect…" he cut off as Ishida touched down in the courtyard. He was supporting Chad again who had nearly collapsed as soon as the hollows had been cleared. "Chad! What happened?"

Chad looked up and gave Ichigo a thumbs up just before he missed a step and nearly brought both him and Ishida down. The Quincy, however, managed to hold onto him and keep them both upright.

"He took a blow to the head a while ago," Ishida said. "But if Inoue-san is just about done with you, it shouldn't take too long to fix him up." Ishida sat Chad down on the porch beside Ichigo.

"Hold on just a moment, Sado-kun," Inoue said. "I'm almost done."

"That's all right, Inoue," Ichigo said as he stood up. The fairies quickly flew back to Inoue's hair pins when he moved. "I'm good enough to heal the rest of the way on my own."

"But, Kurosaki-kun…" she tried to argue but Ichigo was already walking away to meet the others that were returning.

"Urahara," Ichigo called as the shopkeeper suddenly appeared. "What happened here?" He glanced back at the house that was slightly singed around the edges.

"I had an unexpected visitor," he replied but kept on a steady path for the entrance. "Where's Kuchiki-san?"

"Inside. She went in a while ago to see if anyone was here and I haven't heard from her since."

"Let's go see what she has found then, shall we?" He led them up to the porch where he paused for a moment beside Chad who was now being healed by Inoue. "Come inside when you two are finished," he told them and patted Chad on the shoulder as he passed. Ishida, who had been standing nearby, followed them inside.

"It appears that Atsushi didn't like our welcome from the other day," Urahara said as he quickly walked through the shop to the house attached behind. "He sent some pretty nasty company to each of us that were there the other day and Sado-san. We know that he had seen Sado-san at some point before, so we can assume that he has been watching us and has singled us out as the ones he needs to eliminate first."

Ichigo nodded, "But he must have sent some pretty low level servants. We all managed to beat them."

Ishida shook his head, "No, we didn't thoroughly defeat any of them. From the sounds of it, we all surprised them at how powerful we are, but I have a feeling that they are also far more powerful than we saw. I think they just need to make sure that Atsushi really wants us taken out now that they know a little more about us or if he wants to alter his plans."

Urahara sighed before he said, "I would agree with that assessment, Ishida-san." It was then that they entered the dimly lit back room where Nova was lying unconscious on the floor with Ririn and Cloud, now in their human form Gigais, and Rukia were gathered around. The only illumination was a ball of Kido that Rukia held up over the group.

"Urahara-san!" Cloud exclaimed as they entered. "It's Nova, we can't wake him and his spirit power is frightfully low!"

Urahara came over and nudged Ririn out of the way before he knelt down beside the masked mod soul. With a wave of his hand, a larger ball of Kido than Rukia's floated up and hung up in the air in the center of the room. Rukia quickly snuffed her ball out seeing that Urahara's cast a warm glow over all of them as he held his hand out over Nova's chest a moment and then moved it up to hover of over his head. After a few moments, he sighed and then stood up. "I'm not sure what is wrong, but you are right, Cloud, there is hardly any reiatsu left in him."

Ririn gasped and said, "What do we do?"

"I'm not sure," Urahara said. He turned around and addressed Ishida. "What happened to him?"

"I don't know the details," Ishida said. "It was Matsumoto-san and Sado that were there when it happened. But they said that their attacker had pulled Nova out of our dimension for a while. It wasn't until after the man had retreated that Nova reemerged. He passed out almost as soon as he came back. All he was able to say was your name."

Urahara got a contemplative look on his face for a moment before he asked, "When he came back, was it his own portal or the gap like we have been seeing from our attackers?"

"His own," Ishida answered readily.

With a single nod, Urahara turned back around and knelt beside Nova again. "I'm going to have to examine his spirit pill," he said as he brought his cane to hover over Nova's forehead. With a quick motion, he tapped Nova's Gigai with the end of his cane, causing his spirit pill to pop out. Urahara swiped his hand through the air and then stood up again now holding the green spirit pill that was Nova.

"Is he going to be all right, Urahara-san?" Ririn asked.

"I hope so, Ririn," Urahara said. "This might take a little while," he said before he disappeared through another door but the illuminating ball of Kido remained behind for them.

They all stood around looking at each other, not sure what to do now. Chad came in a moment later. "Chad, better?" Ichigo asked him.

"I'm fine," Chad replied. "What happened to Nova?"

"Urahara took his spirit pill and is trying to find out what happened," Ichigo quickly explained. "Where's Inoue?"

"She's still outside," Chad said. "Matsumoto had been injured as well."

"Sounds like your group had it the worst," Rukia said as she sat down.

Chad shrugged, "He was fast and used the earth itself to fight us."

Ichigo sat down beside Rukia and said, "Ours used water."

"The one I saw was using air," Ishida said as he put a hand to his chin and thought a moment. "And it seems rather obvious that whoever was here was using fire."

Ririn nodded, "Yeah, nearly toasted us before Tessai blocked it with a shield Kido and then Urahara-san took over."

"So, one for each of the elements…" Ishida pondered.

Rukia nodded, "Seems so. But that's nothing new. We've seen Shinigami that can control different elements."

Ishida shook his head and said, "That's not exactly true. A Shinigami can use the different elements through their Zanpakutos, but usually there is some limit to the amount of control that one can use. For example, Kuchiki-san, yours can do different moves concerning ice. But it can't actually manipulate water, can it?"

Rukia shook her head, "No, I can only freeze."

"Yes, and even how you are able to freeze is limited to certain moves, correct?"

She nodded again. "Of course I haven't learned my Bankai yet. I have no idea the extent of Sode No Shirayuki's true abilities."

Ishida nodded, "Yes, I understand that. But even for those that have learned their Bankai, there is still a limited amount of things that they can do with their Zanpakuto, correct?"

Rukia nodded, "Yes, I supposed that's true."

"What are you getting at, Uryuu?" Ichigo asked.

"Well, with our attackers today, they all seemed to have complete control over the elements. At least, they had complete control over the spirit particles of those elements. That makes them far more dangerous than what a Zanpakuto can do. There are limited things that a Zanpakuto can do," Ichigo started to open his mouth to say something but Ishida cut him off. "I admit, the things that you Shinigami can do with your Zanpakutos is very impressive and incredibly powerful and useful, but there is still a limit. Once an enemy sees everything that your Zanpakuto can do, then they can plan accordingly. With our new enemies, we have no idea what they can do. It seems like they can do as much as they can imagine and that is extremely dangerous."

Everyone was silent a moment before Ichigo sighed and said, "To top it all off, they're fast."

"No, not exactly fast," Chad said. Everyone looked at him. "They moved at a normal pace, but they could shift in and out of dimensions just as fast as Nova can… possibly faster."

Ishida nodded, "Yes, that caused me quite a lot of trouble. I could move faster than he could manipulate the air, but when I got in close enough range to hit him, he would just vanish."

Chad spoke up again and said, "Nova was the only one that could keep up with Zizka. That's why he was targeted first."

Ichigo sighed in frustration and said, "And now Nova is out of it! Any edge that we had has been taken before we even have gotten started!"

They all sat in silence a while as they realized how complicated matters were quickly becoming.

"What is it with this heavy atmosphere?" Yoruichi's voice asked. They all turned and saw the woman leaning up against the doorframe looking at them.

Rukia spoke up first and asked, "Where were you today?"

"I had some things to take care of," she said in her usual evasive manner.

"Have you been to Soul Society again?" Rukia asked eagerly.

She shook her head and said, "No, I haven't been called back since Atsushi's first arrival. I'm not sure what is going on there." She ignored Rukia's disappointed look and turned to Ishida then. "Ishida," she said.

He looked up at her but didn't say anything. "On my way in, Inoue asked if I could have you come out and talk to her."

Ishida got a confused look on his face before he asked, "What about?"

Yoruichi shrugged as she pushed off from the doorframe and came into the room. "I didn't ask," she replied.

Ishida just nodded before getting up and leaving without another word. As he walked through the house, he saw Jinta, Ururu, and Tessai cleaning up one of the more scorched rooms. He also passed a now healed Matsumoto as she entered to join the group.

"Ishida," she said when she neared him. "I didn't get to thank you yet for your help today."

Ishida shook his head and said, "It was nothing. I'm glad I made it in time."

Matsumoto looked like she wanted to say more, but Ishida simply ignored her and continued walking. She watched him walk out of the shop and then shook her head and continued on her way.

Ishida paused at the doorway and looked outside. Inoue was sitting at the edge of the porch with her legs dangling off the edge while she looked up at the stars above. The Quincy stood there a moment, watching her as he wondered how come she wanted to talk to him alone like this.

A slight breeze shifted across the yard and tugged at her long hair and sent it fluttering around her head. Ishida caught his breath at the sight of the honey colored locks flittering in the breeze with the starlight glinting through them. He didn't have time, however, to assess his surprise at this reaction to the sight. Inoue turned at that moment and smiled at him.

"Ishida-kun," she said. "Thank you for coming out."

He nodded and walked the rest of the way out of the shop to stand beside her. Inoue climbed to her feet then and stood next to Ishida. "Ishida-kun, I was curious, do you think that maybe we should go watch the pillar tonight like you had suggested earlier?"

Ishida paused for a moment as he thought back to that conversation. It seemed like it was so long ago that it didn't even matter anymore. But there was still a very valid reason to have the pillar under surveillance; especially now after everything that had happened today.

He nodded and said, "Yes, Inoue-san. I think that it would be a very good idea to stick to that plan."

She smiled at him again and said, "Oh good! We should be going then, right?"

He hesitated a moment. He was having very strong second thoughts about having her along with this now. It had seemed rather unlikely before that anything would happen tonight so soon after the last Alp attack before. But now it was clear that Atsushi was beginning to get eager and it didn't seem anywhere near as safe including her now as it did before.

"Inoue-san…" he started. He stopped when he looked down at her face as saw how much she really wanted to come along on this. She was tired of being the one that was left behind. She had been the only one out of Ichigo's human friends that had not been targeted in the attacks today. And though that was a good thing, it still had to have been something of a disappointment to her. She probably saw it as acknowledgement that she wasn't as important to Ichigo as she would have liked.

Ishida sighed and then continued, "Inoue-san, we should hurry up, I think. Let's go now." He nudged his glasses up on his face before holding his hand out to her.

With another smile, she took it. A second later, they were both gone from the front porch.

XXX

"You're close now, aren't you?" Yoruichi asked as she entered Urahara's lab. She had spent a short while with the others going over everything that had happened. She knew exactly what Urahara was hoping to find when he examined Nova's spirit pill. She also knew that it was going to be hard for him to remain objective when one of his favorite creations was in jeopardy so she had decided it was her job to make sure that he stayed on track… even if he would hate her even more for it.

"I believe I asked you to leave me alone," Urahara's weary voice replied but he didn't bother to look at her.

Yoruichi sighed before she walked in to the lab. "You know I can't do that, Kisuke. I have been given a mission to make sure that you are able to figure out Atsushi's location. If I have to stay here and make sure you do what needs to be done, then that is what I am going to do."

Urahara slammed his fist onto the table that he was leaning over as he said, "Damn it, Yoruichi!" He spun around to face her before continuing. "Who are you? What have you done with the person that helped me escape from Soul Society when they wrongfully accused me of Aizen's crimes? Where is the woman that left her rightful position of Captain of the second division and leader of the Onmitsukido so that I could save the lives of the Visored?"

He began to walk towards her now as he finally let all of his frustration and anger fill him and release. It was rare that he allowed his emotions to rule him like this, but he had come to a breaking point when it came to the one that he had thought was his only true friend in the world. He had thought that Yoruichi was the one person that he could always trust, no matter what. Now it turned out that she couldn't be trusted. It turned out that she had never truly left her duty to Soul Society behind when she left and now she was being used as their puppet again.

"Where is the person that I have trusted explicitly all of these years? You know you are the only one that I have ever trusted, don't you Yoruichi?"

She stared at him and crossed her arms as she watched him advance on her. She forced all emotion from her face, but inside she had never felt this way before. This was the first time that she had ever experienced a moment of regret. And the worst part was she knew that she would do it again even now, seeing Kisuke this hurt and angry.

She swallowed and forced herself to reply in an even tone, "I know that, Kisuke. I also know that I have done and am doing what needs to be done. Atsushi cannot be allowed to accomplish his goals and, like it or not, you and those kids are our only shot at finding him and taking him down before everything is thrown into chaos."

Urahara stared back at her in silence for a long time before he spoke softly to her, but with an implied edge of a threat to his words. "I know what the stakes are but I will not be dictated to by Soul Society, or anyone else for that matter, on how to do my job. I will find a way to Atsushi, but not at the cost of anyone that I care for. That is a lesson that I have come to learn that you told me was the reason that I passed that stupid test of theirs. Now you are here to undermine that lesson?"

She didn't reply. Urahara turned his back on her and returned to the table that he had been working at. "Go away, Yoruichi. If you bother me again I will be forced to make you leave. Understand?"

She stood there a while before she turned and left without saying another word.

XXX

Ishida and Inoue arrived at the pillar in the middle of the park moments later. Inoue gasped as he sat her down on the ground beside him. "That was fast," she exclaimed as she looked up at the giant white column in front of them.

"Hirenkyaku is just as fast, if not faster, than Shinigami Shunpo," Ishida said as he adjusted his glasses and stared up at the pillar as well. "Why did he need this in the first place?" Ishida wondered out loud.

"Ishida-kun?" Inoue asked, not sure what he was talking about.

"This pillar. It's a gateway, presumably, to wherever Atsushi is. But he and his four other servants that attacked us can apparently simply step from their dimension to ours without using the pillar. If they can do that, why did he need to create this obvious monolith in the first place?"

Inoue shrugged. "Maybe to get those other things here too."

Ishida had thought at first that this had to be the reason, but now he wasn't so sure. Zizka had pulled Nova out of the human world and into another dimension. That meant that they were able to transport others with them when they stepped from one dimension to another. If that was true, then this gigantic beacon that pointed to right where they needed to be concentrating was a tremendous waste of energy and effort.

Inoue looked at Ishida since he hadn't responded to her. He was still staring up at the column with a look of concentration on his face. "Maybe…" she said softly to him. "…It's a diversion. Maybe he wants us to be looking here rather than elsewhere."

Ishida gasped and looked at her. "Inoue-san, I think you're right!" he said. "That's exactly it!"

"But, if that's true…" she said worriedly. "Then we're at the wrong place!"

"No, not exactly," Ishida said quickly. "I think that Atsushi has been using this pillar as a gateway. I saw it just today with the hollows. He'll probably use it at least once more to make sure that we are all concentrating solely on the pillar before he tries to use his element of surprise. But that means that when he does attack here again, he's probably going to be attacking somewhere else at the same time!"

"What do we do?" she asked him.

Ishida hesitated. Even realizing that the pillar was a diversion, they had no idea what other place Atsushi really intended to attack. "Why attack Abarai?" he suddenly asked himself.

"Ishida-kun?"

"Abarai… why would Atsushi bother with attacking him? He was a Shinigami and so he wouldn't have been allowed to do anything against Atsushi. What was Abarai doing that caused the prince to even notice him?"

Inoue shrugged. "Urahara-san said that he had just gone out for a walk that day."

"And I sensed him following after that same presence that I later came to realize was Atsushi. So that means that Abarai had gotten too close to something and Atsushi needed to lead him away before getting rid of him."

"So where was he?" Inoue asked.

"We found him in a run down district of downtown. When I first sensed him, he was heading away from Urahara's. That means that it was somewhere in between Urahara's and where we found him."

"But Ishida-kun, that's still a lot of distance. And the park is in between those places."

Ishida nodded but said, "Yes, but I'm fairly certain that he was farther to the north when I first sensed him. We should start just north of here and then head back towards Urahara's since that is where Abarai should have been coming from in the first place."

"But, Ishida-kun, what about here?" Inoue asked as she looked up at the pillar again.

He looked up at it too but shook his head and said, "We need to find out where Abarai was when he attracted Atsushi's attention. That way we'll have a good idea where we should actually be keeping an eye."

Inoue hesitated a moment again before she said, "You go ahead and search. You're faster than I am. I'll stay here, just in case."

"Inoue-san…" Ishida started to argue.

"No, I'm going to stay here," she said with confidence as she looked him in the eye. "Someone needs to be here in case something does happen. You're better at spotting evidence than I am and you're faster. You can go and search for what happened to Abarai-kun."

Ishida was extremely reluctant to leave her there by herself. He didn't really like having brought her out there in the first place and it didn't seem right to leave a woman alone like this in the middle of the night near something so dangerous. But Ishida recognized that look on her face and knew that she was determined to remain there unless forced otherwise. He could always just grab her and either take her along or bring her back to the shop before he left again, but he didn't think that he really had the right to do something like that when she was so obviously determined.

"All right, Inoue-san," he sighed. "Just please promise me something?"

"Yes, Ishida-kun?"

"If anything does happen, you'll run right back to Urahara's to warn the others."

"Mm," she said in an affirmative as she nodded her head once.

"All right, take care, Inoue-san," he told her and then launched himself into the air and headed due north.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: Welcome back and thanks once again for sticking with my story. I hope you are all enjoying it! Please, don't' forget to leave a review, whether you like it or not. All reviews are helpful after all. Thanks!

Chapter 14

Inoue was surprised that Ishida actually left her there by herself. She watched as the Quincy took off, leaving her alone in the middle of the park. The wind suddenly blew through her hair and sent a shiver down her spine. She was alone in a dangerous location and the only one that knew where she was just left.

She took a deep breath and steadied her nerves. She had asked him to do this. She had wanted to be useful on her own for once. But now that she was there, by herself, she couldn't help but feel maybe she had made a mistake.

With a shake of her head, she dismissed her misgivings and turned back around to face the pillar again. No, she could do this. She was needed here and she was going to stand on her own. She sat down on the cool ground and began her vigil.

XXX

Ishida also had misgivings the moment that he had left. Of course, he had had misgivings from the start when she had suggested leaving her behind. Still, he knew that she was determined to do this and he would be able to tell the moment that she was in danger as long as he kept a constant lock on her reiatsu.

He had always thought that Inoue was not meant for battle, but she seemed determined to prove otherwise. Ishida could understand the need to be useful and to not be a burden among their group. He himself had been in that position before and it was unbearable for him.

He shot northward, hoping that this little excursion wouldn't take very long. If he could just find where it was the Renji had been before he had begun to follow Atsushi across town then he could get back to Inoue and make sure that she was all right. He knew that if anything happened to her now that he had left her he wouldn't be able to live with himself.

XXX

It was well after midnight when suddenly Urahara stumbled back into the room where everyone was gathered. Rukia jerked awake from where she had been sleeping against Ichigo's shoulder. Chad, who had been closest to the entrance Urahara came through, reached out and caught the shopkeeper before he could hit the floor.

"Urahara-san!" Ririn gasped as she jumped up from where she had been sitting and came over to him.

He held out his hand to her and said weakly, "Take him, Ririn."

Ririn held out her hand and he dropped a green spirit candy into her palm before he promptly passed out. Chad gently lowered Urahara down and propped him up against the wall where he had just been sitting.

"What happened?" Ichigo demanded as he got up. "What's wrong with him?"

Ririn stared at the pill in her hand a moment in stunned silence. "What did he hand you, Ririn?" Matsumoto asked as she came over to stand behind the mod soul.

"I…I think it's Nova," she said softly. She turned then and faced the still Gigai that Nova usually inhabited. With a gulp, she went over and knelt beside the body. She carefully pulled Nova's mask up just enough to find his mouth. After gently parting his lips, she dropped the candy into his mouth.

A second later, Nova gasped and then quickly sat up. "Nova!" Cloud exclaimed as Nova began to look around the room. His eyes fell on Urahara across the room, still unconscious.

"Nova, what happened?" Matsumoto asked him.

He sat up and pulled his legs in to sit cross legged and pulled his mask back down before he addressed Matsumoto's question. "I was pulled into Atsushi's dimension," he told them. There was a gasp of surprise around the room.

"How… how did you get back?" Ririn asked him.

"It took all my energy to make a portal. I had to get back to tell Urahara-san where it was," he looked at Urahara again before saying, "I didn't expect to wake up again?"

"What do you mean?" Rukia asked.

"He could have just taken the information from me but that would have also taken the last of my energy. Instead, he transferred most of his own energy to me."

"So that's what's wrong with him…" Matsumoto said as she walked over to Urahara and knelt beside him. She held out a hand and touched his forehead. "I think that he might be out for a while," she told them.

Suddenly his eyes popped open and he reached up and grabbed her hand. Matsumoto gasped as did everyone else. "No, Matsumoto-san, I think that I might be all right soon enough," he said as he lowered her hand from his head before letting her go. His voice was weak and airy, but he was clearly coming around again.

"Urahara-san," Nova said as he got up and came to kneel beside the shopkeeper. "Thank you," he gave a bow to him.

"You don't need to thank me, Nova," Urahara said. "I knew everything would work out fine this way."

"Nova," Ichigo said. "If you've been to Atsushi's dimension, can you create a portal to get back?"

Nova shook his head but it was Urahara that explained as he sat up straighter. "It nearly killed him to make it back. The amount of energy I just gave him was enough to save him, but he couldn't possibly travel that distance again as he is."

Nova nodded and said, "Correct."

"Then can you open a gate for us?" Rukia asked Urahara.

He nodded, "It will take me a day or so to recover enough to do so, but I think, with the information that I can now get from Nova, I can do it."

Urahara sighed to himself as he heard Yoruichi's voice nag at him in his head, "But you could have opened the gate right now if you hadn't saved his life first, Kisuke." He shook his head and cleared that thought. It was not the time for regret right now. He meant what he had told her that he didn't plan on allowing any of his friends to be harmed in order to expedite their progress. Clearly being around Ichigo had rubbed off on him.

"What should we do, Urahara-san?" Ririn asked.

"Right now," he said as he struggled to stand up. Chad helped him up and then let go when it looked like he was going to be able to stand on his own. "I'm going to need to confer with Nova. As for the rest, Ichigo, Sado, Ishida, and Inoue should be getting ready to travel with me to Atsushi's world. The rest of you will need to stay here incase he launches an assault upon Karakura while we're over there.

"Hey," Ichigo suddenly said while looking around the room, "Where are Ishida and Inoue?"

Everyone looked around suddenly realizing that the two of them had never come back from outside. Suddenly Urahara gasped as he started to pitch to the side. His hand came up and grabbed his head as he began to topple and it was Chad's quick reflexes that prevented him from completely falling to the floor.

"Urahara-san?" Chad and Ichigo both exclaimed.

"It's the gate," Urahara said as he started to straighten again. "A powerful wave of energy just came off of it."

With a quickly exchanged look, Rukia, Ichigo, and Matsumoto all made a quick turn to leave. "Find Ishida-san," Urahara said as Cloud came over and offered his arm to the ailing Urahara so that Chad could join the others. "He's even more sensitive to these changes than I am."

"We'll find him," Ichigo said and then led them all out of the shop. As soon as they got outside, Rukia put out her hand and grabbed Ichigo's arm to keep him from rushing off right away. "What about Inoue and Ishida? Where could they be?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Ichigo asked. "They are probably already in the park. It would be like Ishida to think that the gate should be under supervision and I'm sure Inoue would have insisted to go along."

Rukia let go of Ichigo's arm as she realized that that was probably the case. "Let's go then," she said and then disappeared from sight as she switched to Shunpo.

Ichigo half turned towards Chad and was going to offer to take him with but Matsumoto was already at the teen's side. "Go ahead, Ichigo," she said. "I'll take Sado."

Ichigo nodded and was about to leave when Ririn's voice called out to him. "Ichigo!"

He turned and saw she had switched to her plushy form and was running towards him out of the shop. "Wait, I might be able to help!" She leapt off of the porch and caught Ichigo's shoulder.

"All right, Ririn," Ichigo said. "Hold on tight." He took off then, following behind Rukia. Matsumoto with Chad quickly followed after.

XXX

Ishida reached the general line that he thought that Renji had been on between where he had sensed him and where they had found him that day. He stopped and looked around. There didn't really seem to be anything around there so he turned and started to head back towards Urahara's from where he was.

He didn't get very far before he came across a large dilapidated building. He stopped and took a closer look. It was the ruins of Matsukura hospital. This was a sight that had once been on the charismatic spirit medium, Don Konouji's show. It was also the place where Ichigo first truly caught his attention.

Ishida had noticed that Ichigo had acquired Shinigami powers months before, but he didn't seem to have any real power or control. It was when he had seen what happened on the show that Ishida decided that it would be worth his time to challenge Ichigo. That of course led to a chain of events that Ishida wasn't very proud of, but had been quite essential in both their relationship and Ichigo's progression as a Shinigami.

Now, standing outside the chained off gate of the old hospital, Ishida wondered if maybe this place was about to be the center of another change in their lives. It was certainly secluded and avoided enough to be a good place for Atsushi to launch an ambush from and it fit the path that Renji could have been on when he became a target.

"So, you've figured it out now too?" Yoruichi's voice said from above Ishida's head. He gasped and looked up as he took a step back. Yoruichi was sitting on top of a brick pillar in between segments of the iron gate that circled the building.

"Yoruichi-san!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Beside's avoiding Kisuke?" she said with a sigh as she jumped down to stand beside Ishida. She turned and eyed the dilapidated building. "I would imagine the same thing as you. I tracked down where Abarai had been the day he was attacked and found this place."

"So, you think that the gate in the park is just a diversion as well?" he asked her as he adjusted his glasses and also turned to face the building.

She nodded, "A place like this is where the spirit particles have worn thin between the dimensions. It would be far easier to create a gate here than in the park, and with far less disturbance. I think that Atsushi has created another, less obvious, gateway inside that building and is planning some kind of ambush while our forces are concentrated on the pillar in the middle of the community park."

"That's what Inoue and I also thought," Ishida said.

Yoruichi looked at Ishida then and asked, "Where is she?"

He sighed and replied, "She insisted that she stay at the park while I checked out our theory."

"And you let her?" Yoruichi asked, rather surprised but it didn't sound like an accusation.

He nodded as he nudged his glasses, "She has been determined lately to prove herself."

Yoruichi was silent a moment before she nodded, "Yes, I can understand that," she said softly.

Suddenly Ishida gasped and pitched forward, grabbing his head in both hands. He fell to his knees but before he could topple all the way over, Yoruichi grabbed his shoulder and kept him upright, "Ishida, what is it?" she demanded.

Ishida took several deep breaths as he tried to clear the sudden headache and nausea that suddenly struck him. When he was able to think clearly again, he suddenly shot up, ignoring all of his discomfort and said, "The gateway, something is coming out!" He turned back that way and was about to go back when they both heard a noise inside of the hospital.

Yoruichi took one look at Ishida and saw the terrible conflict that he was going through. He desperately wanted to go to Inoue now that he knew that she was in danger, but there was another danger here that needed to be taken care of. "Go," she told him. "I'll hold them off here. The others are already heading towards the park. Help Inoue and then send help this way!"

"But, Yoruichi-san!" he exclaimed even as she had already vaulted over the gate and was heading for the building. He watched her go a moment before he launched into the air and did as she had told him. He rushed as fast as he could over the town to get to Inoue before anything could happen to her. "I'm coming, Inoue-san," he muttered just as he sensed her reiatsu flair up ahead of him.

XXX

Inoue sat in the cold night by herself with her knees pulled up to her chest and arms wrapped around them. The night was getting very late and the air was cooling off quickly. It was true that summer was right around the corner, but the nights and early mornings were still quite chilly. It didn't help that the wind kept picking up as she waited there for either something to happen or for Ishida to return.

She sighed and leaned her head down on top of her knees. "It certainly is lonely out here," she muttered. "I'm glad Ishida-kun felt he could trust me to stay here, but I really do miss his company."

She suddenly sat up and gave a gasp. "Oh no," she said. "I forgot about those donuts! And I worked so hard finding the perfect toppings for them too." She sighed and laid her head back down on her knees. "Oh well," she said. "They wouldn't have been as good by myself anyway."

The stars in the sky shifted above her head. It was a moonless night so there was very little light reaching down into the clearing around the cold white pillar. The dark night was dragging on far too slowly for her.

Then she suddenly felt something in the air. It wasn't definite, but something felt a little off. She looked up then at the pillar. As her eyes slid up the side of the monolith, she noticed a tiny patch about halfway up that was quite dark. Even as she spotted it, she realized that the patch of black was slowly expanding outward.

With a gasp, she jumped to her feet, realizing that something was happening. She was about to turn and run for the shop to warn them as she had promised Ishida, but then she saw several black shapes flutter out of the opening.

"Hell butterflies?" she breathed when she could see their form a little more clearly. That was exactly what they looked like. It was a group of black butterflies that were now fluttering from the opening in the pillar. Some were drifting off through the night sky in various directions, but a few were flying lower towards her.

As they neared, she suddenly knew that these were not the butterflies that she had seen from Soul Society. There was an air of malevolence falling off of them that made the hairs on the back of her neck rise. She took a step backward as they came closer to her, preparing to make a run for it. But just as she took the step, the butterflies suddenly changed slightly. Their wings grew a bit larger and they seemed to take on a bit more mass. Now, instead of their lazy fluttering in her general direction, they were flying straight for her like any raptor would be able to do.

She let out a cry and threw up her shield in their path. A couple crashed into it and slid to the ground, dazed. But most shot upward to avoid hitting the yellow triangle. Of those, three flew up and then arced back down towards Inoue in an effort to dive bomb her. The other three turned in the air and headed back for the pillar.

Inoue moved her shield above her head to block the new attack from the bird like butterflies. The other ones that returned to the opening, circled the pillar once and then headed back for Inoue, bringing a large group of friends that had just emerged from the opening.

The three still attacking avoided the shield and dove around the edges to make it to the ground, surrounding Inoue there. She watched as the three large butterflies suddenly changed again when they touched the ground. Their bodies quickly stretched and lengthened as they got lower to the ground. In a moment, three large black snakes were slithering along the ground towards her feet.

"Tsubaki!" Inoue cried. Her offensive fairy burst from her hairpins and immediately swooped down and severed the head of one of the snakes. Inoue turned towards that opening and started running. Tsubaki turned in mid air and flashed back towards one of the other snakes that was now in pursuit of Inoue. He sliced neatly through another head, killing another of the snakes. As the snakes died, they burst into a puff of black smoke before vanishing completely.

Inoue glanced back over her shoulder and saw that Tsubaki was about to take out the last of the three snakes but when she glanced up, a cloud of the large, birdlike butterflies were descending towards her. She gasped when she saw this and knew that she was not going to be able to outrun these things. She stopped then and turned around as she raised her hands to the sides of her head and called out all of her helpers to her.

XXX

Ishida raced across the sky, hoping that he wasn't going to be too late. He could feel that the others back at Urahara's were just now heading in that direction as well, but he was going to get there before them. "Inoue-san, please be all right," he whispered as the pillar came into sight.

As he reached the clearing at the center of the park, the first thing that he noticed was a glowing yellow triangle up against the side of the pillar. Behind that triangle, a mass of fluttering wings scraped and flapped against the shield, trying to get past it.

He glanced down then and saw Inoue. She was in the middle of a swarm of more of these black winged creatures that resembled butterflies but certainly didn't behave like them. A few long dark shadows were slithering along on the ground around her that she was constantly trying to avoid.

Ishida was about to launch into an attack but he paused for a moment, stunned at what he was watching. Inoue was guiding Tsubaki around her in a dazzling flash, slicing through the butterflies and breaking up their attack. But it was the sight of the two healing fairies flying around at her feet, distracting the snakes from Inoue that surprised Ishida. He didn't know that Inoue was able to use those two for anything besides healing.

It was a bit shocking enough to see her able to control Tsubaki so deftly, but to see that she had improvised with her other abilities proved to Ishida that he might have been mistaken at her abilities. But he quickly shook off this surprise when he saw one of the snakes launch itself from the ground up towards the back of Inoue's neck.

Immediately, Ishida called out his bow and shot a single arrow through the serpent's neck, severing its head from the body and causing it to flop to the ground before bursting into a puff of black smoke.

Inoue gasped when she heard the thing hit the ground. She noticed the blue arrow that had continued on and buried into the ground. She glanced up and a huge smile broke across her face. "Ishida-kun!" she yelled up at him.

He was suddenly on the ground at her side. "Inoue-san," he said as he pulled out a Seele Schneider and began to cut through the remaining snakes around them. "Are you all right?"

"Yes," she said and then turned her attention back to the fluttering mess above them. "But I'm glad you're here, Ishida-kun." Tsubaki flashed through the cluster again, turning several of the butterflies into smoke as he went.

"Can you keep the ones above busy while I take out the snakes?" Ishida asked her.

She nodded as she sent Tsubaki back through the cloud. She startled him when she then called, "Ayame, Shuno, I reject!" The two fairies that had been flashing around at their feet to distract the snakes suddenly shot up into the air. Their yellow shield spread between them as they flew and then neatly turned in tandem in the air.

Ishida almost forgot his duty to be taking care of the serpents as he watched in wonder as they flew straight for the mass of butterflies above them. Using the curved shield between them, they scooped through the butterflies as if they were a giant butterfly net, capturing a large amount of them, before making a dive for the ground again. They pinned their catch there to the ground as they flapped and struggled to break free from their prison.

"Inoue-san!" Ishida gasped even as he took out another two snakes with a swipe of his Seele Schneider. "I didn't know you could do that!"

She looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. "Neither did I," she said with a slight laugh. She turned then and used Tsubaki to finish off the last of the butterflies that had escaped the "net."

Ishida had finished off the rest of the serpents at the same time when they heard a crack from above. They both looked up and saw that Inoue's shield that was preventing many more of the creatures from crossing into their world was beginning to give way under their onslaught.

"Ishida! Inoue!" Rukia's voice called down to them form above. They looked up and saw the petite Shinigami standing there. "Are you two all right?" she asked.

"We're fine, Kuchiki-san!" Inoue called as she waved her hand up at Rukia.

"But Inoue-san's shield isn't going to hold much longer," Ishida called as he put his blade away again and summoned his bow. He aimed it towards the shield that was going to give way any second.

Rukia looked over at what was happening there and quickly saw that Inoue's shield was preventing something from getting through but it wasn't going to be for much longer. Drawing her Zanpakuto, she twisted it in the air. A swirl of white circled around her as the elegant white ribbon grew from the pommel. "Tsugi no mai, Hakuren," she called and then stabbed the blade down in four parallel strikes. A wall of white suddenly grew up and rippled out in front of her and hit Inoue's shield just as it gave way.

The three fairies scattered in opposite directions, avoiding the blast of ice that now sealed over the gap in the pillar. They swooped through the air and came back down to Inoue. They popped right back onto her currently empty hairpins.

Ichigo and Ririn arrived just then with Matsumoto and Chad coming up right behind. "Ichigo!" Ishida called up to him. "We can handle this here, but Yoruichi-san needs help over at the Matsukura hospital!"

Ichigo stared down at Ishida, wondering what that place had to do with anything. Ishida shot up into the air to stand beside Ichigo. "I tracked back Abarai's path before he was attacked and I think that he was led away from it and attacked for getting too close to something there. Yoruichi-san came to the same conclusion. This attack here is a diversion from whatever is going on there!" he explained quickly.

The sound of shattering ice reached their ears then as the creatures broke through the wall that Rukia had covered the entrance with. Ishida spun around and aimed his bow at the mass of butterflies that was now spilling from the opening. He fired off a massive amount of his blue spirit arrows, cutting through the majority of cloud.

Ichigo pulled his Zanpakuto off of his back and faced the ones that were getting by the hail of Quincy arrows. "Ichigo!" Matsumoto cried. "If Ishida is right, we should leave this to them. We need to see what is going on at that hospital."

Rukia glanced over her shoulder then and said, "Go, Ichigo. We can handle this." She turned back and launched herself at the butterflies even as Ishida's arrows sailed in all around her. Ichigo noticed then that Inoue's Tsubaki was also soaring in and out of the mass, slicing through a fair share of the creatures as well.

"All right," Ichigo said and turned to Matsumoto and Chad, "Let's go then!"

XXX

Yoruichi's back slammed into a decaying cement pillar inside of the hospital, causing the support to crumble and give way. Still dazed, she managed to roll out of the way of the collapsing cement and the partial ceiling collapse that it triggered. Staggering to her feet, she wiped a smear of blood that trickled from her lip off and stared down at her opponents.

Two large men faced off to her, each wielding enormous clubs. They were so tall that they had to hunch slightly to fit in the hospital corridor. The clubs were actually extensions of their right arms. From the shoulder, it appeared like a normal, human bicep. But just above the elbow, the skin faded to white and met with what looked like solid bone but was still the mass as if the forearm were still covered in muscle and skin. Where a hand should have been, the bone like surface continued on a ways and then bulged out, making the solid club that had just been used to knock her back.

Standing in front of these two giants was a small woman. She was about a foot shorter than Yoruichi but standing in front of the other two made her look miniscule. She was lithe and dressed entirely in a blood red jump suite with a high collar that went up to her nose. She had two long navy blue braids of hair that fell to either side of her face and draped in front of her shoulders. She stood there, staring at Yoruichi as she spun a cord around above her head that had a blade attached to the end. The other end of the cord she held loosely looped in her other hand ended in another blade.

Yoruichi hadn't made it very far into the building before encountering these three. She was sure that there was something else going on further inside if she could only get past these guys. Unfortunately, she had misjudged at first. She could tell that the girl would be very quick and probably not someone that Yoruichi would really want to engage right away, so she had focused her attention on the other two thugs, thinking their mass would prevent them from being able to keep up with her movements. But she had been wrong.

She had tried to get behind the one on the right to deliver a kick to the back of his head, but he followed her movement and met her with his club, sending her crashing back into the column where she had just gotten up from. "Who are you?" the girl asked as she continued to spin the blade around above her head.

Yoruichi calmly turned her head and spit out a mouthful of blood before saying, "The one that is going to stop whatever you and Atsushi have planned for this town."

The girl raised her eyebrows slightly as she said, "Oh really?" Suddenly the cord that she was spinning left her hand and flew at Yoruichi. The former captain flash stepped out of the way and wound up on the other side of the hallway.

"Shunko!" she cried out. A cracking white light erupted from her back and shoulders, tearing away the orange jacket that she wore, leaving her in a skin tight black uniform without back and sleeves. The girl lashed out with her blade again, but this time Yoruichi wasn't even in the same place before she had released the knife.

The girl spun around as she heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh. Yoruichi had just appeared beside the large man on the right again, but this time her punch met with his face, knocking him across the hall and into the other one. Both were sent crashing through the brick side of the hallway and out into the courtyard outside. A giant hole in the wall was the only evidence that there had been anyone else in the hall besides Yoruichi and the blade wielding girl.

But the former captain received a shock that the girl had managed to grab the cord at the center and slashed out with the other blade, slicing Yoruichi across her back. Yoruichi stumbled forward but then used Shunpo to vanish and appear at the girl's backside.

The girl had already pulled back on the cord for the opposite blade and it was coming right as Yoruichi. With a blast of white energy from her, Yoruichi knocked the blade off course so that it buried into the wall to her left. As she did this, she lashed out with a kick at the girl.

Yoruichi gasped in amazement as the girl suddenly doubled over and the leg passed right over her back. She continued over and dropped down so that she was supposed by just her left hand. With lightening fast speed, she spun herself around, kicking out at Yoruichi's grounded leg with her own legs. Yoruichi just managed to jump up to avoid the kick, but the girl simultaneously yanked back on the cord in her right hand, pulling her blade from the brick wall. A shower of brick was yanked out and rained down on Yoruichi.

She flash stepped out of the path but took a blow to the right shoulder as she went. Turning around to face her opponent again, she watched the girl swing out her legs again and then did a backbend from her hands to her feet. She came up swinging her cord tied knifes to either side of her body. "You're fast," she said as she slowly advanced towards Yoruichi. "Let's see exactly how fast…"

She spun in place then, launching out first her right hand blade. Yoruichi dodged it but suddenly found that the other blade had been launched immediately afterward. It was now spinning point first for the former captain's throat. In mid step, Yoruichi bent backward, allowing the blade to pass just above her neck. A small squirt of blood erupted from where the edge of the blade nicked across her throat.

Yoruichi turned her backbend into a back flip and went head under heels before landing squarely on her feet again. She knew that the girl was already sending a blade at her, but she was already in motion again. With a flash step, she was suddenly right in front of the girl. With all of the power of her Shunko, she punched the girl in the face with her right hand.

The girl was sent sailing through the air backward, blades trailing behind her. She soared down the hallway until her momentum succumbed to gravity and she hit the floor. She continued to skid down the tiled floor for some more distance, sending up a path of broken tiles along her way.

Finally she came to a stop and lay there, quite still. Yoruichi took several deep breaths and wiped away another slight trickle of blood from her mouth as she eyed the girl all the way at the other end of the hallway now. "Che," she said as she looked at the smear of her own blood on her fingers. The white glow all around her diminished as she released her hold on her Shunko. "I should have expected her to be difficult."

Yoruichi turned then and started to walk up the hallway, leaving the girl behind her. The sound of shifting tiles was the only warning that Yoruichi had before a blade was sent sailing in towards her exposed back.

She just had time to spin around to face the blade before a spray of blood erupted into the air around her.

A/N: I have a nasty habit of ending on cliff hangers, don't I? Anyway, please read and review and stay tuned for chapter 15 next week!


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: sorry for yet another delay. Life and writers block and all that seem to get in the way time to time. But here we are. Thanks again for sticking with me!

Chapter 15

As Ichigo, along with Ririn, Matsumoto and Chad arrived on the scene, the first thing they noticed were two large men picking themselves up from the ground. The next thing that they saw was the giant hole in the side of the building that these two giants had just come from. Finally they could hear fighting going on inside of the building through that hole.

"I'll take care of these two," Chad told the others as they touched down just outside the building not far from the two men. "You go help Yoruichi-san."

"You sure, Chad?" Ichigo asked as he eyed the two giants with their club formed arms.

"Of course," he told them as he transformed his right arm and began to walk towards them. The two men turned and moved to block the newcomers' path. Chad pulled back his arm and let out a blast of power, taking them by surprise and knocking them out of the way for the others to pass by.

"I'll leave this to you then, Chad," Ichigo said as he ran by followed closely by Matsumoto.

No sooner had the others passed by then the two men were getting up again as if they hadn't been hurt at all. They both turned and faced off to Chad. "Would you two please stand down?" Chad asked them as he stood his ground, blocking the path for these two to interfere with his friends.

The two creatures exchanged a look but didn't say anything. Suddenly they launched into a running charge at Chad. The one on the left brought his clubbed arm out and swung it at Chad as he got close. Simultaneously the other one brought his up and tried to bring it down on Chad's head.

When both of their clubs impacted a mess of debris was kicked up from the commotion so that they froze for a moment before they could see the results of their attack. As the dust settled, they both raised their eyebrows when the saw that Chad was still standing.

The shield of his right arm had blocked the club from the left giant while he caught the club above his head with his left hand. A trickle of blood was running down his arm now from where the club had impacted his bare hand and he was now standing in a slight indent in the ground from the impact, but that was the extent of the damage.

With a huge shove, Chad pushed the left one down with his right arm while he grabbed a hold of the club in his left hand and lifted the large man up off the ground. He tossed the man some distance back into the ground.

He stood there a moment, panting from the effort as he observed his opponents. Both of the them remained silent as they picked themselves up off of the ground again, still looking completely unharmed. "I do not wish to fight you," Chad told them as he brought his right arm in front of his chest. "But I will if you insist on coming after my friends."

He held his left arm out to the side and the white with red armor formed over that arm. The two exchanged another look before they both began to walk towards Chad again. They seemed to be taking their time now, rather than rushing in but they still seemed quite determined in attacking.

"If that is how it is…" Chad said as blue energy began to spark at each of his fingers on his left hand.

XXX

_Yoruichi turned then and started to walk up the hallway, leaving the girl behind her. The sound of shifting tiles was the only warning that Yoruichi before a blade was sent sailing in towards her exposed back._

_ She just had time to spin around to face the blade before a spray of blood erupted into the air around her. _

Yoruichi looked down and frowned at her right hand that she had placed in front of her chest. There was now a blade sticking through the palm of her hand and protruding all the way out the back.

She looked down the cord that attached to the blade and followed it back to the girl that was holding it. She was now kneeling in the middle of the path of torn up tiles, glaring back at Yoruichi as a drop of blood fell from the corner of her mouth.

"Maybe we should get serious now," the girl said as she slowly stood up. "My name is Kuna. May I know the name of the one I am about to kill?"

"Che," Yoruichi said before she suddenly reached out with her left hand and pulled the cord closer to her. Kuna took a step forward with the pull but started spinning the other blade above her head. Yoruichi yanked her right hand free as she pulled the cord even closer to herself.

Kuna whipped the blade in her hand out, sent for Yoruichi's head. Yoruichi suddenly dipped out of the way as she dropped into the splits on the floor. With another yank on her end of the cord, Yoruichi flung her blade back at its wielder.

The girl did a backbend to avoid that blade that she turned into a back flip, reeling in her cord as she went. Not letting go of her end of the cord, Yoruichi allowed it to pull her up off of the floor before she spun to pull some of the now loose end towards herself to get a hold of the blade that had just been aimed for her head.

Both girls retrieved the blade and launched them again at each other while reaching out for the center of the cord to try and keep a hold of the weapon. Their hands met in the middle as they both reached and ducked at the same time.

They paused for a moment, staring into each other's eyes as they breathed heavily. "Is this all the better the Flash princess can do?" Kuna asked, surprising Yoruichi.

The ex-captain narrowed her eyes at the girl and said, "How do you know who I am?"

The girl simply smiled before she suddenly spun out and aimed a kick at Yoruichi's head. She managed to block it with her arm, but she was surprised at how quickly this girl was moving now. She backed off as Kuna began a series of kicks and punches that Yoruichi was hardly able to keep up with to block let alone follow through with her own hits.

By now, Kuna had the entire length of the cord looped around her right arm with both blades dangling from either side. Yoruichi had been forced to release her hold on it completely. As soon as the girl had retrieved her weapon, she suddenly did a series of back flips to put some distance between herself and Yoruichi.

But when she came to a stop, she was forced to duck as another of Yoruichi's well aimed punches came sailing in from behind her. Yoruichi had managed to beat her back down the hallway and had been waiting for her.

Another rapid succession of punches and kicks followed as both girls bent and blocked each other. Neither of them were able to make any solid contact with the other.

They broke apart suddenly and stood across the hallway from each other, both breathing rapidly. "Who are you?" Yoruichi asked as she narrowed her eyes into an accusing glare at the girl.

Kuna smiled in return. "You didn't think you were the only one with god like speed, did you?" Suddenly, she kicked off of the wall behind her and launched at Yoruichi.

Yoruichi stepped out of the way, but didn't see that the girl had loosened a loop of cord form her arm. She spun in mid air so that her feet made contact with the wall and immediately pushed off again while tossing the loop out at Yoruichi. It slipped around her neck and suddenly went taut as Kuna spun and landed behind Yoruichi.

Kuna pulled both ends of the loop tightly, cutting off Yoruichi's air. "You aren't nearly as fast as you think you are," the girl said quietly into Yoruichi's ear as she continuously pulled at the cord.

Yoruichi grabbed at the cord around her neck with both hands as she gasped and choked. "Sh…Shun…ko," she finally managed to gasp out. In a blaze of white, the cord was disintegrated and Kuna was knocked backward with the force of the release of power.

Yoruichi stumbled forward, still trying to regain her breath. Her Shunko disappeared as soon as it had been released since she was still a bit too dazed to maintain it. Still, she turned around as quickly as she could manage, thinking Kuna was going to be on her right away again. She was bit surprised, however, to see the girl standing in the middle of the hallway, wide eyed and stunned. She seemed to be the one gasping for breathe now as she slowly began to back away with a terrified expression.

"How… How are you doing that…?" she muttered.

Yoruichi stood up slowly, wondering what it was that the girl was seeing. Suddenly Ichigo stepped through the hole in the wall that Yoruichi had made earlier when she knocked the two goons outside. The ex-captain realized exactly what was going on when she saw the small birdlike Ririn clinging to Ichigo's shoulder.

"Thanks for the help, Ririn," Yoruichi said.

"I won't be able to keep this up much longer," Ririn said. "She is very strong willed."

Matsumoto was next to step through the hole and said, "I'll take care of her. You guys go ahead."

"Careful, Matsumoto, she's fast. She might even be faster than me," Yoruichi warned as she and Ichigo turned to head up the hallway.

"Understood," Matsumoto said as she turned and faced off to Kuna.

XXX

"Ishida-kun!" Inoue cried out to get the Quincy's attention. When he looked back down at Inoue, he saw her indicating her healing shield that still pinned a large amount of creatures under it. Most of the butterflies had transformed into the snakes and were a mess of slithering thing, fighting to get out of the shield. A few cracks were beginning to show along the outside of the shield, signaling that it wouldn't be long before the creatures managed to escape.

"Kuchiki-san!" Ishida called out to Rukia. She glanced his way even as she continued to slice through the cloud of vicious butterflies that continued to pour out of the hole in the pillar. "I'll leave these to you for the moment," he told her as he turned and aimed his bow at Inoue's healing shield below on the ground.

Rukia nodded and then turned back around. She spun her sword in an arc again saying, "Some no mai, Tsukishiro!" A white circle appeared in the middle of the air beside her. A second later, ice erupted both above and below the circle, creating a pillar of ice beside the white gate pillar. The vast majority of the butterflies were caught inside of the pillar and frozen in place.

As she performed this move, Inoue's shield finally gave way. As it did, Ishida was ready and fired a volley of arrows into the mass of snakes. He struck and killed all of them. The few butterflies that had remained, Inoue sent Tsubaki in to take care of.

They both turned then and saw Rukia standing between the two pillars with her palm facing towards the entrance hole where a few straggling butterflies still fluttered out of. "Hado 33, Sokatsui!" A blast of blue spiritual energy erupted from her palm and shot out towards the hole. By the time it reached the target, it had grown large enough to encompass the entire hole.

The energy burst against the pillar, obscuring their vision for a moment. When the energy settled, they saw that the last of the butterflies had been incinerated and the edges of the hole had crumbled in on themselves, nearly sealing the hole closed.

"We did it!" Inoue exclaimed as she gave a slight leap in the air.

Both Ishida and Rukia joined her on the ground then. "Yes, we did," Ishida said, glancing back up at the pillar as he adjusted his glasses. "You did a great job, Inoue-san," he added.

Inoue blushed slightly and lowered her head. Tsubaki then rushed back to her and quickly popped back onto her hair pins.

"We should go to the hospital and see how Ichigo and the others are doing," Rukia said.

The other two agreed. Ishida offered a hand to Inoue. She took it with only a brief hesitation and then all of them took off in the in direction of the abandoned hospital.

XXX

Yoruichi and Ichigo rushed down the hallway after leaving Matsumoto to take care of Kuna. "What is going on here?" Ichigo asked as they ran.

Yoruichi glanced over at him and then said, "It seems that Atsushi has been using that monstrous column in the middle of the park as a distraction. This place was worn thin due to the years of spiritual activity here so he was able to break through here with minimal disruption."

"So the attack at the park…?" Ichigo said.

"He probably meant to create as much destruction as possible, but it was really just something he wanted us to focus on while he did whatever he has planned here."

Ririn piped up then, "And what does he have planed?"

Yoruichi shook her head. "I don't know. But I'm sure that it's not something we want to wait around and find out about."

They exchanged a look and then quickly switched to Shunpo to flash through the hallways, following the hint of spiritual energy that was higher and deeper inside of the run down hospital. At the heightened speed, it didn't take them long before they reached a large open area in the middle of the building that probably had once been a cafeteria. The cement columns that supported the ceiling were all that littered the open space. They only slightly obscured their vision of what was happening in the exact middle of the room.

Between the columns, they could see two men. One, whom none of them had seen before, seemed to be marking something out on the floor. He was an older man of about middling height, though he was slightly slouched over as he walked around the room. He was balding slightly with a ring of mostly white hair about his head. What hadn't yet faded to white showed that he had once been a brunette.

He turned slightly at that point so that Ichigo, Yoruichi, and Ririn could catch a glimpse of his eyes. They were completely black. Two orbs completely devoid of color sat in his sockets.

Where he walked, a dark line trailed behind him. Ichigo could just barley hear him muttering something as he walked. Though he couldn't make out the words, something about them sent a shiver down the substitute Shinigami's spine.

The form that this man seemed to be drawing on the ground was now an almost complete star set inside a pentagon. The lines of this pentagon at first appeared just as black and devoid of light as the man's eyes. But, when viewed closer, there was a slight shimmer to the lines where all sorts of colors could be observed. It actually was a little dizzying to look at for too long.

After a moment, they finally managed to draw their attention from this man and what he was doing to the other man that was standing in the center of this drawing. It was Atsushi.

"So, you figured it out have you?" the prince said as he looked up at the three that had entered. "And you made it past my guards and my daughter… I am quite impressed with you, I have to say."

"What are you doing here?" Ichigo demanded as he took a step forward and brought his blade up to point at Atsushi. The older man paused for a moment in what he was doing and looked up at Ichigo as if he just now noticed the newcomers' presence.

Atsushi smiled at them slowly as he said, "That is none of you business." He looked at the other man then and said, "Goethe, did I tell you to stop?"

The man bowed his head reverently and replied, "Nein, mein Köenig." With that he cast his blank eyes downward again and continued to trace the strange lines on the floor.

Yoruichi leaned over to Ichigo then and said softly, "Whatever it is, it's probably not good. I'll distract Atsushi, you take out the old man."

"But Yoruichi-san…" Ichigo started to argue. But the ex-captain had already called out her Shunko and launched herself at Atsushi.

The prince simply stood at the center of the room and grinned at her as Yoruichi rapidly approached. Suddenly, just as she reached the line that formed the outer pentagon, the white crackling energy from her Shunko vanished and she practically stopped dead as her forward momentum was slowed dramatically.

"Yoruichi!" Ichigo yelled as he watched her stumble just past the line that seemed to have sapped her of her power.

She staggered a moment before she stood tall where she was and stared down at Atsushi who was now only a few yards away. "Interesting," she said coolly to him. "Whatever this is, it negates my Shunko."

Atsushi continued to grin at her and replied, "You like it? What you have just entered is an area void of spirit energy. It's not just your Shunko, but all of your powers. Did you notice that your flash step even vanished as soon as you crossed the line?"

Yoruichi nodded slightly and then cast a sideways glance at the other man. He only had one segment left to draw to complete the star in the center of the pentagon. The man seemed to tip his head towards her a moment but then quickly returned his attention to his task, never once pausing in his muttering and slow, even steps.

"Ichigo," Yoruichi said softly as she returned her gaze towards Atsushi. "Don't cross the line, but do as I had instructed."

"Yoruichi-san…" but she was already rushing towards Atsushi even though she no longer had any of her Shinigami powers to aid her.

"Ririn," Ichigo said hurriedly. "Can't you do something?"

"I'm trying!" she chirped shrilly in his ear. "But I can't create anything inside of that drawing!"

Ichigo growled in frustration as first he called on his Bankai and then he reached up and pulled his mask out. "Hang on, Ririn," he said as he flash stepped to the other side of the room. He stopped just opposite of the man and drew his blade back. "Getsuga Tensho!" he cried as he slashed his Zanpakuto forward and let a blast of black energy fly free towards the man.

The man turned his head towards the blast of deadly energy that came his way but no emotion or reaction showed on his face at the sight of it. Nor did he pause in his assigned task. Just as the energy reached the edge of the line that the man was currently inside of, the attack suddenly vanished.

Ichigo gasped in surprise as he flipped his hand across his face and removed his mask. A dry, humorless laugh came from the center of the room then, drawing Ichigo's attention back to Atsushi.

He gasped in surprise again as he now saw Yoruichi slightly suspended from the ground as the prince gripped her with one hand around her throat. "I just told you," Atsushi said. "No spirit energy can cross that line. There is nothing that you can do now to stop me."

"Ich…igo," Yoruichi gasped. She was gripping the hand around her throat and trying to pry it loose without any luck. "S…Stop him," she managed to get out as she gave a significant look towards the man that was now very near completing the star.

"Ichigo, I have an idea!" Ririn suddenly whispered in his ear. "Get ready."

Ichigo didn't have any idea what Ririn thought she could do, but he gripped his sword tighter and readied himself for whatever opportunity she might give him. Suddenly, the room seemed to be filled with Atsushis. They were standing all around the room and staring at the man drawing the lines.

"Goethe," they spoke. Suddenly the man came up short where he was and looked around him in confusion.

"Don't stop you fool!" the real Atsushi bellowed from the center of the room. But even as he spoke the other Atsushi's all began to speak. Each one was giving the man different instructions. He began to stumble back with confusion written all over his face.

Ichigo didn't waist any time. As soon as the man had paused, he rushed at him. He ignored Yoruichi's instruction to not cross the line. He figured that this man was so distracted right now, it didn't matter if his sword had any spiritual energy when it encountered the man or not.

The second that Ichigo's foot crossed the line, he felt dizzy and lightheaded. But his momentum carried him across and right to the man's back. He drew his blade across that back just as Goethe took his confused step backward into the blade. He let out a cry of pain as he was knocked forward and then out of the pentagon altogether.

Ichigo stumbled after him, feeling increasingly disoriented and sickened from being inside of that area. The moment that he was out, he felt like his old self again. Before either men had any time to react, Ichigo pulled out his mask again and launched into an attack upon the man.

Goethe spun around now and brought a hand up between himself and Ichigo. Zangetsu's tip struck the center of Goethe's palm and came to a sudden stop. Ichigo gasped in surprise again. He stared down at where his Zanpakuto encountered the man's hand and realized that there was a tiny space between the tip and flesh. A tiny disk of swirling darkness had formed at the very center of the man's palm. It was the same type of blackness that the lines on the floor were made out of. The hint of a myriad of colors that shimmered in the blackness made Ichigo's stomach flip. There was something very unnatural about the colors that disturbed him.

"Enough!" Atsushi snapped as he gripped Yoruichi tighter around the throat and raised her up a little higher from the floor. She gasped and choked, drawing Ichigo's attention again.

"Dismiss your illusions and step away from my man or I will snap her neck!"

Ichigo stared at the prince for a second before he slowly lowered his sword and said softly, "Do it, Ririn." All of the other Atsushis vanished then, leaving just the real one still in the center of the figure on the floor gripping Yoruichi.

"Good, now," Atsushi said without any hint of releasing his captive. "Goethe, I believe you have a job to finish."

Goethe bowed his head again and muttered, "Ja, Mein Köenig."

Just as he took a step to walk past Ichigo and reenter the pentagon, a sudden flash of blue streaked through the room. A spirit arrow came from the doorway and passed right through the pentagon, catching Atsushi's arm and then burying itself in Goethe's shoulder.

As the arrow passed through the pentagon, the marking suddenly flared, casting the same strange darkened colors through the room. Ichigo and Ririn both cried out in shock from the overload of the strange colors. Atsushi also let out a surprised exclamation as the arrow slashed through the back of his wrist. He released his grip on Yoruichi reflexively.

She closed her eyes as the flare from the marking started and then rolled out of the area the moment that she was released. She staggered to her feet once again when she was finally outside of the pentagon, gasping and coughing as she regained her breath.

The room was silent and still for a moment as everyone tried to take in exactly what had happened. Ichigo pried his eyes open again after he had reflexively closed them at the flash and began to look around. He finally was able to spot Ishida standing in the doorway, bow still up and aimed at Atsushi. Inoue was standing just outside of the room at Ishida's shoulder.

Atsushi grabbed his wrist with his uninjured hand as he also turned his attention to where the arrow had come from. "Quincy…" he said. There was a strange mix of emotions in his voice as he said this one word. It seemed as if there was an odd mix of anger, surprise, and something close to reverence.

"Uryuu! Inoue!"

" Ishida," Yoruichi said as she looked at him. "You can fire through the markings?"

"Apparently," he said simply, not once taking his eyes from Atsushi.

"Of course you can, Quincy," Atsushi said. He started to glance about him a little as if taking in everyone's positions. "You were supposed to be busy elsewhere, tonight." He told Ishida. "Your presence was the only thing that could hamper this operation."

"Then it is a good thing that I made it here in time," Ishida replied coolly as he took another step into the room.

"Goethe," Atsushi said softly without removing his eyes form Ishida. "We're leaving."

Ichigo suddenly spun around and reached out to grab the man beside him just as he bowed his head again and then vanished from the sight in another swirl of those unnerving colors. Ichigo heard Ishida fire another arrow and turned just in time to see Atsushi reach out and pluck the arrow from the air.

Ishida had a look of surprise on his face as Atsushi turned towards him slightly and then threw the arrow towards the ground. Just before it pierced the floor, he gave Ishida a grin and a slight wave. The moment that the arrow struck the floor, there was another brilliant flash that forced everyone to close their eyes. When they opened them again, Atsushi had also vanished.

Everyone looked around at each other at that moment. Ishida slowly lowered his bow and dismissed it. Ichigo let his gaze settle on his Quincy friend as he lowered his blade. "What the hell was that?" he asked. No one had an answer for him.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: Nope, not dead. Sorry for the very long delay. Life and all that has attacked me and is continuing to attack me so I can't guarantee when the next Chapter will be up. But I promise that I will get to the end of this one!

Chapter 16

_Everyone looked around at each other at that moment. Ishida slowly lowered his bow and dismissed. Ichigo let his gaze settle on his Quincy friend as he lowered his blade. "What the hell was that?" he asked. No one had an answer for him._

"Are… Are you all right, Kurosaki-kun? Yoruichi-san?" Inoue asked as she stepped into the room behind Ishida.

Both of them looked at her. Ichigo nodded and replied, "Yeah, I felt really weird for that moment I was inside that thing, but I'm fine now." He brought his hand up then and rubbed the back of his head as he thought about it.

"You're lucky to still be alive," Yoruichi snapped at him as she walked over and knelt beside the nearest line in the floor. She tentatively reached out her hand and touched the mark. As soon as her fingers came in contact with it, she snatched her hand back with a slight gasp of pain.

"Yoruichi-san!" Inoue exclaimed as she came over to stand beside the ex-captain. Yoruichi was standing up by then and didn't seem to have received any permanent damage from her examination.

"It's all right, Inoue," she told the girl. "I just didn't expect it to be so hot."

"Hot?" Ishida asked as he came forward. He knelt beside the line then and touched it as well.

"Ishida-kun!" Inoue exclaimed

"Oi! What are you doing!" Ichigo said simultaneously.

Ishida looked up at first Inoue and then Ichigo without removing his hand from the mark. "It doesn't feel any different to me," he told them.

Yoruichi came over to him then, eyeing him carefully. "Do you sense anything at all from it?"

Ishida had a concentrated look on his face a moment before he nodded his head and replied. "Yes, there is something strange about this mark. It feels… It almost reminds me of when I am holding my Seele Schneider."

"Well what does that mean?" Ichigo asked. "And how come your arrows could pass through that thing when my Getsuga Tensho just vanished?"

"It vanished?" Inoue gasped.

"Yes," Yoruichi confirmed. "Atsushi told us that the area inside the pentagon was devoid of spiritual energy."

Ishida stood up and shook his head, "No, that's not entirely true." He took a step forward then and entered the pentagon. There was a slight shimmer on the marking just as he stepped inside and then nothing.

"Be careful!" Ichigo snapped.

"It's all right, Ichigo," Ishida told him. "I don't know why, but there is no difference for me inside of this than outside. In fact…" he summoned his bow then and aimed it for a far corner.

At first Ichigo didn't notice anything and then he exclaimed, "Hey, isn't your bow bigger now?"

Ishida nodded and then fired off an arrow. It blazed from his bow and struck the far corner, obliterating the cement and flying straight on through into the next room. It continued to blaze through the walls for some distance before finally stopping.

"Interesting…" Yoruichi said as she walked over to examine the damage.

Ishida lowered his bow then and dismissed it before stepping out of the pentagon. "I think that whatever Atsushi was doing is somehow connected to the same powers that I use as a Quincy," he told them as he adjusted his glasses.

"That's why he said you were the only one that could have stopped him," Inoue said.

Ishida nodded, "Though I have no idea how or why this is."

Yoruichi shook her head and then turned towards the exit. "Let's get back and talk to Kisuke about this. I can't figure it out either, but I'm sure he has an idea or two."

As she started to walk towards the door, Matsumoto came rushing in. She had a cut across her forehead and was holding her left arm tightly. Blood was seeping through her fingers from where she was gripping her arm but she didn't seem to notice her injuries very much. "Orihime!" she exclaimed as she caught sight of the girl in the room. "You need to come outside. Sado has been hurt again! Rukia is tending him now, but your healing abilities are much faster."

"Oh, of course!" Inoue exclaimed and then took off at a run through the door. Matsumoto stepped to the side and let her pass and then glanced back at everyone that was left in the room.

"So, you were successful then?" she asked them. She eyed the marking on the floor in curiosity.

"More or less," Yoruichi told her. "I see you're still standing. So she didn't give you too much trouble then?"

Matsumoto shrugged. "She was full of surprises, I can tell you. Gave me a bit of a hassle until Rukia turned up and offered her help. Still, we didn't bring her down. She suddenly just stepped back from us, waved, and then vanished."

"It seems that these people are all quite capable of evading us," Ishida said with a sigh.

"Hey," Ichigo said. "Didn't Atsushi say something about that girl being his daughter?"

"Yes," Yoruichi said. "He did. With that knowledge, I'm not surprised how difficult she was."

Matsumoto shook her head then as they all started to turn and file out of the room. "But that really doesn't explain her Zanpakuto…"

"Her what!" Ichigo exclaimed.

Matsumoto shrugged and began explaining how her fight with Kuna had gone.

XXX

_Matsumoto stepped into the hallway and said, "I'll take care of her. You guys go ahead."_

_ "Careful, Matsumoto, she's fast. She might even be faster than me," Yoruichi warned as she and Ichigo turned to head up the hallway._

_ "Understood," Matsumoto said as she turned and faced off to Kuna._

The petite girl suddenly blinked and looked around her as if she were coming out of stupor. "What…" she caught sight of Matsumoto standing in front of her now instead of Yoruichi. "Huh," she said as she bent over without any fear and picked up the blades that had fallen to the ground when the cord had been incinerated from Yoruichi's Shunko. "So you switched off on me then? No matter."

She brought the two blades together end to end then said, "Slice deeply, Beniko," as she pulled the two blades apart. As she did, a new cord grew between them.

Matsumoto's eyes grew large in surprise as she watched this. "A Zanpakuto?" she breathed.

"That's right," Kuna said as she continued to stretch the cord out between her blades. "Beniko is my Zanpakuto. And she will drink from you blood very soon." As she spoke, she began to spin one of the blades around above her head again. "Now, let's see what your blade can do…"

She suddenly sent her blade flying at Matsumoto. The Shinigami spun out of the way as she called, "Growl, Heiniko!" Her blade dissolved into ash and then swarmed around her, knocking the second blade that was now on an intercept course away from her body.

She stopped her spin and slashed out towards Kuna with the hilt of her sword. The cloud of ash shot out towards the girl and surrounded her. Kuna tossed one of her blades upward so hard that it stuck into the ceiling and she lifted herself up and out of the way of Matsumoto's attack. She then used her momentum to swing out towards the Shinigami and struck her in the chest with a kick before landing.

Matsumoto was knocked backward into the side of the hallway. But she flicked her wrist, sending her sword in for another attack at the girl. Kuna yanked her blade free from the ceiling and flattened herself to the ground as the swarm of ashes passed right over her head.

She immediately came up spinning her blade above her head even faster. The ash that was still drifting over her head was suddenly whipped up into a cyclone around the small blade and pulled in towards it.

Matsumoto gasped and pulled her arm back, trying to bring her Zanpakuto back to the hilt in her hand. It started to return, but Kuna spun her cord faster, keeping Heiniko from being able to return to Matsumoto.

Just when the Shinigami realized that she was in trouble, Kuna lashed out at her with the other blade while she continued to keep the ashes captive in her cyclone. Matsumoto spun in an attempt to dodge again, but the blade sliced deeply into her left arm as it sailed by and struck the wall behind her.

Matsumoto gave a cry as she clamped her right hand down over the slice that was already bleeding heavily. Kuna gave a giggle as she said, "What can you do now? You can't match my speed and you have lost your sword."

Matsumoto suddenly grabbed the pink sash around her shoulders and tossed it up towards the spinning blade. It was sucked into the vacuum along with the ashes of her Zanpakuto. But just as it became entangled with the cord, she yanked back on it, causing the spin to suddenly stop.

Kuna pitched forward with her blade as the ashes suddenly surged back to Matsumoto's hilt. Pulling Kuna towards her with one hand, Matsumoto stabbed forward with her newly formed katana. Kuna stumbled and twisted, managing to avoid getting stabbed through the chest as had been then intention of the Shinigami. Instead, the blade bit deeply into her side as she sailed by Matsumoto.

Despite the pain from the injury, she didn't hesitate when she reached the wall. Kuna put a foot out and stepped against the vertical surface. With two more steps, she had stepped up the wall and then pushed off with a spin. She kicked out with her left leg as she spun in the air.

Matsumoto ducked, thinking that she was aiming a kick for her head. Instead, Kuna caught the cord against her foot and then slid down the line onto the taut scarf that was still gripping the cord. She continued to slide down the scarf right to the now kneeling Matsumoto.

The Shinigami looked up and saw that Kuna had one of her blades in her hand and was above to stab her with it with all of the force of gravity behind her. She leaned back and turned her head just in time as she let go of her scarf. Kuna pitched forward now that the slope from the scarf was suddenly dropped. But she still managed to slash out with that blade, catching Matsumoto across the forehead as she went.

As soon as she was past the Shinigami, she pulled back on the cord that was now on the ground where Matsumoto had dropped her scarf. The cord came free from the now loose scarf and returned to Kuna's control again. She turned around, spinning both of her blades on either side of her body, breathing deeply, while she looked back at her opponent. She was now standing between Matsumoto and the hole in the wall to the outside.

Matsumoto was getting to her feet now, also breathing heavily, and also turning around to face off to the girl. Her blade was still in its katana form which she gripped tightly in her right hand even while she used that hand to clamp down on her left arm again. The floor around her was becoming slick with her own blood. She had to squint from her left eye as more blood dripped into it, obscuring her vision.

Matsumoto looked down and saw drops of blood splattering the floor from the gash that Kuna had taken in her side. "If you don't stop that spinning, you're going to bleed to death soon," the Shinigami told the girl.

"If you don't retreat, you're going to get minced soon," the girl replied as she took a step towards Matsumoto.

The Shinigami let go of her arm then and pulled her hand back. The blade dissolved into ash again as she swept the hilt back.

"What good will that do?" Kuna asked. "You saw what I did last time. You're only going to lose your blade again if you do that."

But Matsumoto gave a slow smile as she looked just past Kuna. "Oh, I don't think you're going to be spinning that blade much longer."

Kuna squinted and then gasped as she half turned to look out behind her. All she was able to see was a graceful flash of white a moment before a wall of ice shot towards her. She tried to leap out of the way, but the wave caught her and carried her across the hallway. Matsumoto had already leapt out of the way and took cover behind the nearest support pillar.

The ice wall carried Kuna across the hall and slammed her body into the opposite wall, freezing her to it. Matsumoto stepped out from behind the pillar as she called Heiniko back to her hilt. Rukia stepped through the hole then.

"Perfect timing, Rukia," Matsumoto exclaimed.

As Rukia stepped further in, Ishida and Inoue entered behind her. She glanced back at them and said, "I thought I told you two to help Sado?"

"He said he can handle them," Ishida said.

Inoue nodded, "And we noticed Kurosaki-kun's reiatsu suddenly drop a second ago. We think he might need help."

Just then the ice began to crack and they could see that Kuna was about to break free. "Alright," Rukia said as she brought her blade up against the girl. "Hurry up and help Ichigo, we'll keep this one busy."

Matsumoto nodded and also turned to face the girl.

"Be careful," Ishida said as he reached back and took Inoue's hand. A second later they had both vanished up the hallway.

Just as they had disappeared, the ice gave a mighty snap and shattered, leaving Kuna standing against the wall, taking heaving breaths as she shook the last of the ice shards from her body. "Do you think that was enough to stop me?" she growled as she flicked the final ice shard off of her left shoulder.

"It served its purpose," Rukia said as she slid her foot back and brought her sword pointed straight out with her left hand poised behind and above her. "I don't intend on allowing you to use your weapon again," she said.

Kuna sneered at Rukia as she yanked on the cord that was connected to the two blades that were still incased in ice. Rukia launched into an attack, forcing Kuna to duck and release her grip on the ensnared blades to avoid the attack. As she leapt onto the ice on the floor to try and slide further away, Matsumoto slashed out with her katana, driving Kuna further away from her weapon.

"Growl, Heiniko," she called and sent the ashes after the girl.

Suddenly she vanished completely from sight. Both Shinigami were just turning around when a kick caught both of them, knocking them backward and skidding across the now melting ice. Kuna did a cartwheel then over to where her weapon was and caught a hold of the cord. With another cartwheel, she pulled the blades free from the ice and came up further down the hallway, spinning one end above her head again.

Matsumoto quickly called her sword back to the hilt as soon as she saw that the girl was spinning her blade again.

"Good thinking," Kuna told her. "You wouldn't want to lose control of your blade again."

Matsumoto stepped forward, putting herself between Rukia and the girl. Rukia was still on the floor. She had managed to make it to her knees, but seemed to be having trouble catching her breath to make it to a stand. She was kneeling with her head bowed and a hand pulled to her chest while supporting herself with the other hand holding her blade point first on the floor.

"I must have knocked her a little harder than I thought," Kuna said as she tried to look around the taller woman in front of her.

"She's none of your concern. We started this fight, let's finish it," Matsumoto said loudly to her.

Kuna gave a laugh, "I don't believe that we had started this fight either. You took the place of that other woman. But I'll be happy to finish you off before slicing up you friend there." She took a step forward then and was just about to release her blade to send at Matsumoto. Just then, Matsumoto took a step sideways as Rukia looked up and turned her palm out towards Kuna.

"Bakudo, number 61. Rikujokoro!" she yelled as a beam of yellow light erupted from her palm and shot towards Kuna. The six beams struck the girl just as her fingers released the spinning blade. It sailed a short distance but with out the sending power or direction that Kuna had meant to give it now that she was trapped in the binding spell.

She was standing there, frozen in place, with her arm still held aloft above her head. She stared at the two of them with rage written all over her face. "You were muttering an incantation, weren't you?" she growled at Rukia as the small Shinigami stood up without any hint of difficulty.

"That's right," she told her as she pulled the tip of her sword free from the tiles. "And now…" she took a step back and twirled her sword in the air and was just about to call on one of her Shikai abilities when Kuna suddenly screamed. She seemed to flex outward and the six beams of light shattered in a hail of sparks.

Matsumoto and Rukia both gasped and raised up a hand to protect themselves from the shower of light and energy. When they lowered their arms, the girl was standing free once again. She looked at them, gave a slight smile and a wave before taking a step backward and vanished. "Not her too!" Matsumoto gasped as she turned around, searching for any sight of the girl.

Rukia sighed as she sealed her Zanpakuto again and returned it to the sheath. "It seems she has the same ability as those other guys did," she said. "Come on, I think Ichigo and the others are all right, but I can't sense Sado." She turned then and they both hurried out of the building in search of Chad.

XXX

Everyone was gathered in the basement of Urahara's shop as Matsumoto and Rukia finished retelling everyone their story. Urahara sat in silence for a moment as he thought over all of the events that had just been described to him. It had taken quite some time for everything to be told in detail. He was quite sure that it had to be dawn by now outside. It was Sunday by now in the outside world and the people out there had no idea how close they possibly came to never seeing this dawn.

Pushing these morbid thoughts aside, Urahara returned to the thoughts at hand. "Well, this has certainly been an exciting night," he summed up. "It's amazing that no one was severely hurt tonight with all that you encountered."

Chad, it turned out, hadn't been hurt too badly. He had looked worse than he was when Matsumoto and Rukia came up on him. He was lying on the ground unconscious and covered in blood. But it turned out that most of the blood was actually that of the two thugs that he had beaten up. They were the only two of Atsushi's guys that did not manage to vanish with either defeat, or to run away.

The two women had found the large bodies not far from where Chad was lying. They were each lying in a crater in the ground in the shape of a skull. Neither of the large men survived the attack.

"Also," Urahara pressed on. "With both the information that you have all given me and the ability to examine those bodies that Sado was able to take care of, I can say with some certainty at least part of what Atsushi has been up to over the last few centuries."

"Centuries?" Ichigo asked. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Urahara said as he pulled his fan out as something to keep his hands busy while he explained. "First of all, it was the names of those that had attacked us before. All of them were names of actual people. The oldest one was from the mid nine hundreds, AD. He and then all of the others that came after, had been very popular and successful military generals from Germanic states."

"Wait," Ichigo said. "They had been actual people once?"

Ishida nodded and said, "I thought that some of those names had sounded familiar." He nudged his glasses before he asked, "So did Atsushi take their souls after they died then?"

Urahara nodded, "That is the most likely of scenarios. Somehow, he knew of these men and took their souls after they had died."

"Took them from where?" Ichigo asked. "Soul Society?"

Rukia shook her head, "I doubt very much that men with such reputations had ever been destined for Soul Society."

Urahara agreed with her and said, "Yes. It is more likely that Atsushi came to them before they were claimed by hell and offered them an alternative. Come work for him, or go to hell for eternity. It's not surprising which they chose."

"But what about their powers?" Matsumoto asked.

"Well," Urahara said. "After examining those bodies, I can see that Atsushi has been hard at work at modifying souls."

"Modifying souls?" Ririn asked suddenly. "You mean he's making Mod souls?"

Urahara shook his head. "No, mod souls, like yourself, are created souls. You were not originally anything else. What Atsushi has been doing is taking existing souls and enhancing them. He took four men, from history, and gave each one the ability to completely manipulate the different elements."

"But what about that last guy?" Ichigo asked. He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck as he thought a second. "What was his name again?"

"Goethe," Yoruichi said simply. Urahara glanced her way and then nodded before continuing. "Yes, I would say he is something a little different. That is not a name associated with death and war like the other four."

"He was a poet and a scientist," Ishida said, surprising everyone.

Urahara nodded and said, "That's right. Specifically, some of his more famous poems had to do with death and demons and the devil. Also, his main area of study had been into the perception of light and colors."

"Colors?" Ichigo asked as he remembered the weird lines that the guy had been drawing.

"Yes," Urahara said. "It seems that that research has somehow been turned into his weapon."

"But, Urahara-san," Ishida said. "Johann von Goethe hadn't been a violent man. He was, in fact, the opposite. He was an artist and a writer. He wrote some of the most important works in German literature."

Urahara nodded, "That's what makes him so different from the other four. Where those four had probably accepted Atsushi's offer of power willingly, Goethe was most likely coerced." He turned then to Yoruichi and asked, "You said that Goethe referred to Atsushi as Mein Köenig?"

She nodded in reply.

Ishida spoke up and said, "That means 'my king,' in German."

"Very good," Urahara told him. "I think that Atsushi came to Goethe at his death, impersonating one of the characters that he had been known for writing. Specifically, I think that it was probably Der Erlköenig."

"The elf king?" Ishida asked.

Urahara nodded. "It was a poem about the evil elf king that Goethe wrote that later was set to music by Schubert. It told a story of how the elf king came to a boy while he was riding home with his father at night. He tried to tempt the boy away with various things, including to come and play with his daughter. But he wouldn't go and tried to warn his father about the demon. His father wouldn't listen to his son and when he arrived at home, he found that the elf king had taken his son's soul anyway, killing the boy."

Everyone was silent for a moment before Rukia spoke up. "So, Atsushi somehow convinced Goethe that he was this elf king. But how would this convince him to work for the prince?"

"If you were a good person and believed that another had the power to steal others' souls, what would you do?" Inoue asked.

They all looked at her in surprise at her insight. "That's quite right, Inoue-san," Urahara told her. "I am sure that Goethe only agreed to serve Atsushi at first to try and minimize the souls that he takes. But I am also sure that by this point, after all of the tampering that Atsushi has done to that poor soul, he no longer has any choice in his servitude."

"And the daughter…?" Yoruichi asked. "Do you think that Kuna was this supposed daughter from the poem?"

Urahara shrugged as he put his fan away. "Possibly, possibly not. I can guess that she had once been a Shinigami soul that Atsushi had taken in much the same manner as the human souls. That would be why she had a Zanpakuto. It seems that Atsushi is quite gifted when it comes to modifying souls."

Ishida nodded and said, "It certainly fits his personality. After all, he does think of himself as a god."

They were all silent then for a while as they took in all of this new information. It didn't sound good that their enemy was able to create so many advanced enemies to throw at them. And they still didn't know the actual purpose of whatever Atsushi was attempting at the hospital that night.

"Urahara-san," Ishida asked, breaking the silence. "Do you have any idea why I was the only one unaffected by whatever Goethe was setting up back at the hospital?"

Urahara eyed Ishida a moment. "I am not sure," he finally said. "I would guess that your Quincy nature played a large part in it, though I don't know how that is. I wouldn't count on such an oversight in the future from Atsushi."

Ishida nodded once as he adjusted his glasses, "No, I didn't plan to," he told him. "I was just curious if you had any ideas on the matter."

Urahara didn't give any reply, acting as if the answer that he had already given Ishida was all that he had. He turned the conversation a different way at this point. "I do have some good news to report, though," he told them. "After some hard work with Nova, I do believe that I can open a gateway to Atsushi's dimension by tomorrow evening."

Everyone perked up at this announcement. "Are you ready for something like that, Kisuke?" Yoruichi asked him with a raised eyebrow.

He nodded without looking at her. "By tomorrow, I will be. I have a few things to set up and a few calculations to finish in the mean time while I restore the energy that I had used between that battle yesterday and brining Nova back. So, that means that you four…" he indicated Ichigo, Inoue, Chad, and Ishida. "… have a day to prepare yourselves. We will be the ones to cross over and see what we can do about bringing the fight to Atsushi."

"Urahara…" Rukia spoke up quickly.

Urahara shook his head, anticipating her question. "No Kuchiki-san, I'm afraid that it would be impossible for you to come with us. For one thing, you are a Shinigami… an active member of the protection squads… so it would be illegal for you to interfere in the affairs of the royal family."

"That's bullshit!" Ichigo protested. He looked like he was going to continue with a tirade, but Urahara's calm head shake interrupted him.

"I agree, Ichigo. But this is the very reason that your friends have been tested. Besides, there are some other factors that I am worried about with Kuchiki-san accompanying us. Not the least of which is what would happen here if Atsushi chose to attack the human world again while we are away. I believe that with the five of us gone, it would be good to leave a formidable force here." He nodded towards Rukia, Matsumoto, and Yoruichi. "You three, along with the help of our mod soul friends, are going to be the front line here in the human world while we are away."

The three women nodded. The mod souls each exchanged a look with each other before they also nodded their ascent and understanding.

"Good," Urahara said as he stood up suddenly. "Then I need to start my preparations. The rest of you should probably start working on either deciding how to go about your protection of the city, or getting your stories straight for why you are going to be missing from school during the last two weeks of classes."

"Oh!" Inoue gasped. "I didn't think about that."

Ishida sighed as he stood up and while fixing his glasses. "And I have already missed several days…" he muttered.

Ichigo stood up then and stretched saying, "Well I suppose I could just ask Kon to fill in for me…" He stopped then and remembered what happened the last time Kon was allowed in Ichigo's body at school. "… on the other hand…" he started to say.

Urahara smiled and said, "That would be a great idea!" He turned to the other three humans and said, "It's too bad that you three will be using your bodies or I could probably come up with a few more temporary souls for you to stand in while we're away."

The three of them exchanged glances before Ishida cleared his throat and said as calmly as he could, "Yes, that is too bad. We'll just have to think of something else since it won't be possible."

But Urahara was already walking away with a thoughtful look on his face. "I wonder if I have time to make a few new Gigais…" he was muttering as he strolled away.

All three of the humans sweat dropped at the thought of having souls like Rukia's Chappy, or worse, Kon, taking their places.


	17. Chapter 17

A/N: And back! Again, sorry for the delay. Here we are with a fairly fluffy chapter. I figure that a little break from the battles is in order. Thanks for the reviews and please continue!

Chapter 17

The next morning Ishida woke up still not sure what excuse he was going to give for his absence during the last two weeks of school. He was mostly concerned with the fact that he may miss the final exams. That meant, unless he came up with a really good excuse that allowed him to take the exam over the summer, he was not going to be able to keep his position of top of the class. He knew that there were some things more important that his grades… but not much.

He sighed to himself as he got up and searched for his glasses on the stand beside his bed. He was just going to have to accept that he may just have a semester where he wasn't the best at something. As grating as that was, he knew that taking care of this current problem was a little more important.

His hand found the familiar shape of his glasses and he slipped them onto his face. He blinked through the lenses allowing his eyes to adjust. Suddenly, he gasped and jumped up. He noticed, at the other side of his room across from him, another person was sitting, looking at him. At first, his sleep filled mind and bleary vision had just taken this other person to be his reflection in his bedroom mirror. But it was sitting to the side of his mirror in a chair. It was also wearing his school uniform where he had not gotten dressed yet. But, other than the clothes and the position, it could have been his mirror image.

The Ishida copy looked at him and then performed a perfect impression of how he normally adjusts his glasses before speaking, "It took you long enough to notice," he said.

"Who the hell are you?" Ishida demanded as he prepared to call out his bow.

The other Ishida sighed and stood up saying, "You can't be this slow. I'm you, of course."

Ishida felt a sudden dislike for this person. What right did he have to come into his room, looking like him, and insulting his intelligence? "How can you possibly be me?" he asked, eyeing the imposter.

With a sigh, the copy reached into his pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. "Here, I didn't think that you would need to have it spelled out, but the odd Shinigami gave me this to explain everything to you." He reached out and handed it to his counterpart.

Cautiously, Ishida reached out and took. He unfolded the paper and read the contents.

_Good morning Ishida-san,_

_I put some thought into your dilemma about leaving school this close summer and came up with a few new mod souls and Gigais for you and Inoue-san. I had hoped to make one for Sado-san too, but ran out of time so Cloud volunteered to step in for him. I tried my hardest to make them as like the two of you as I could._

_You can send him out to school today to get a feel for things. I'll see you at the shop later this evening!_

_ 3 Urahara_

"Che," Ishida muttered as he folded the paper back up and sat it on the stand beside his bed. "So, Urahara-san has decided to interfere again," he said as he eyed his double again.

"I don't see how you can be surprised by this," the mod soul said. "Did he not mention something about making new Gigais yesterday?"

Ishida stared at him and asked, "How did you know that?" 

With a scoff the double turned and started to walk away as he spoke. "I really can't understand how I could be a copy of you. Your mind is far too slow." He walked out of the bedroom and over to the sofa where Ishida had left his school bag. He picked it up as Ishida followed him out.

"Look here," Ishida snapped at him, causing the double to turn and eye Ishida again. "You are supposed to be my stand in so how about you treat me with a little respect?"

"Fine," the copy said as he fixed his glasses again. "Since you seem to need everything spelled out for you, Ishida-_san_, I'll tell you. After putting in my basic personality profile that he built off of observations of you, he brought me here and, while you were asleep, extracted a memory print from you and gave it to me. Now, not only to I look and act just like you, I also have most, if not all of your memories."

"He what!" Ishida gasped. "He took my memories?"

"What are you complaining about?" the copy asked. "This way I can take the final exam for you and have all of your knowledge. Now you can go off with the others and still keep your position in the class."

Ishida knew this was true, but he still didn't like the idea that Urahara had implanted his memories like that. A person's memories where who they were and it didn't sit right with him to have them taken and shared without so much as a 'by your leave.'

"Ishida-kun!" a cry came just then from the open window.

Both Ishida's turned and simultaneously pushed up their glasses and muttered, "Inoue-san?"

The argument put on hold; both of them went over to the window and looked out. Standing below on the sidewalk was not one, but two Inoue's. They both looked up and smiled and waved brightly at the two of them. "Ishida-kun!" they both cried in excitement. "Isn't this wonderful?" the one on the left asked.

"Urahara-san did a great job, didn't he?" the other one said.

Both Ishida's simply nodded and the real one said, "Inoue-san, wait just a moment and I'll…" he glanced at his double dubiously and then said, "…we'll be out."

Both girls nodded. As the Ishida's were turning away, they both noticed that the girls were holding hands and seemed like they had already become best friends.

"I'm not surprised Inoue-san enjoys having a copy of herself," the real Ishida muttered as he walked back to his bedroom and began to pull out a set of clothes for the day. He was about to put on his school uniform when he realized that that wasn't necessary now. Though he was still more than a little dubious about sending this double to class for him, he figured that it was going to have to take his place for possibly next two weeks so he might as well let it start now.

"She is far too friendly for her own good," the copy said as he came and stood in the bedroom doorway.

Ishida was a little uncomfortable with having someone else there while he got dressed but quickly shook the feeling off. After all, this was his copy. What did it matter if he was there while he got dressed?

"Not to mention often misunderstood," the real Ishida said as he pulled his shirt on over his head. "She must finally feel like she has met someone that really understands her now."

The copy turned slightly in the doorway and looked back across towards the window that they had talked to the two Inoue's a moment ago. "I'm glad she has found such a close friend."

For some reason Ishida didn't like hearing his double talk like that. There was something in the tone that made him feel… something.

"Well," he said quickly as he finished getting dressed and walked by his double towards the door. "Let's get going then. You'll need to get to school soon."

"Like I could forget that," the other one muttered. "That's the whole reason I was created after all."

The two of them left the apartment, casting occasional glares at each other as they went. But their dislike for each other was quickly forgotten as they got to the sidewalk and both Inoue's ran up to them. "Ishida-kun!" they both called. Suddenly each girl went to one of them and embraced each one in a hug.

Both of the Ishida's froze, not sure what to do about this. "Inoue-san…" the real Ishida muttered, unsure of where to put his own hands.

"Inoue-san, what…?" the copy was saying as he also seemed to be at a loss of how to react.

Both girls stepped back and said in unison, "Sorry, Ishida-kun."

"I'm just so happy to meet you," the one that had hugged the real Ishida said.

The other one nodded, "Yes, we're excited to meet someone new, but not," she cast a giant smile.

The real Ishida looked between the two of them, wondering for a moment which one was the real one. It was then that he realized that the one in front of him didn't seem to have nearly the same amount of reiatsu as the other one. Also, her hairpins were slightly differently shaped than he remembered and white instead of blue.

"So, you're the copy," he said to the one that had just hugged him.

She nodded with a quick, "Mm."

"It's nice to meet you," the real one said the Ishida copy.

He nodded and replied, "Yes, though it feels like I have already met you, Inoue-san."

"Oh yes!" she exclaimed.

"We should have realized…" the copy said.

"… that he would have gotten Ishida-kun's memories too!" the original finished.

The two Ishida's exchanged a glance and realized that they were both feeling a little overwhelmed by having two Inoue's. "Well," the real Ishida said. "Maybe the mod souls should go to school now."

His copy nodded and said, "Yes, we should get going, Inoue-san," he said to the copy Inoue.

"Ok!" she exclaimed and then walked over to him and looped her arm through his. He looked a little startled by this, but didn't take his arm back. "Let's get going Ishida-kun!"

Together they walked off towards the school with the copy Ishida glancing over his shoulder slightly at his original. Ishida wasn't sure what that look was, but something about it unnerved him. He was also surprised to feel a little angered that he didn't take his arm back when the copy Inoue had taken it.

"What should we do now, Ishida-kun?" Inoue asked him, snapping him back out of his thoughts.

He really didn't have an answer for her. "I would assume," he said as he tried to think of something. "That Sado and Ichigo have sent Cloud and Kon to stand in for them today as well."

"Oh!" Inoue exclaimed. "We should go find them then and spend the day together!"

Ishida wasn't so sure about that, but he nodded when he saw how excited she was about the idea. Part of him thought maybe he should take this last little bit of time to train. But he knew that there really wasn't much for him to train at this time. He was as ready as he was ever going to be for this new mission.

He nodded to Inoue, "Yes, we could do that," he told her.

She gave him a brilliant smile and then started to babble about stopping at Kurosaki-kun's first to find him and then on to Sado-kun's. Ishida found himself a little curious why she didn't take his arm as she began to walk away like her copy had done to the other Ishida.

It took them a while to walk to the Kurosaki house and Ishida wasn't all that surprised to find that Ichigo had already left the house. Inoue was about to become rather upset when Ishida calmly told her that Ichigo wasn't very far away.

"Oh, yes," she said, looking rather sheepish. "I didn't think to try and sense him out." She turned then and confidently began to lead them both in the direction that Ishida already realized the Shinigami was. He also knew that Kuchiki-san was with him.

They walked down a few roads and then turned into a small park where they found the two Shinigami taking a stroll down the sidewalk. "Kuchiki-san! Kurosaki-kun!" Inoue called out to them and waved before taking off at a run to catch up with them.

They both stopped and waved back at her. "Inoue, you and Ishida are taking the day off too?" Rukia asked.

Ishida calmly walked up to them, not having run like Inoue. "You didn't hear about what Urahara-san did?" he asked them.

Ichigo turned to him and asked, "What did he do this time?"

"Oh, it's so wonderful!" Inoue said and then explained the whole situation in a rush.

As Rukia was exclaiming how great that was and talking about the whole thing with Inoue, Ichigo turned to Ishida and said, "I bet you don't find it quite as wonderful as Inoue, huh Uryuu?"

Keeping a straight face, he fixed his glasses and said, "It is rather useful having someone to stand in for me."

"But you don't like the idea of someone else taking your place," Ichigo said as a statement. "Trust me, I know. At least yours has a better chance of acting like you. I have to deal with Kon taking my place."

Ishida turned to him then and said, "I am sorry, Ichigo. I never really thought about that before."

Ichigo shrugged, "Yeah, it's nice to have someone who can take my place when I need, but Kon is… well he's not exactly my first choice for a stand-in."

Ishida nodded and then realized that the girls' chatter was beginning to slow down. "Oh, Kuchiki-san," he heard Inoue say. "Ishida-kun and I were thinking of getting together with you two and Sado-kun to spend the day since we are all off of school and can't leave until this evening."

Rukia smiled and told Inoue that was a great idea and that they should go and find Sado right away. So, the two boys found themselves walking in silence behind the talkative girls as they headed for Chad's place.

"It wasn't really your idea, was it?" Ichigo said quietly to Ishida.

The Quincy shook his head but didn't say anything else. To be honest, he was still wondering why the copy of Inoue had grabbed the other Ishida's arm and this one hadn't done the same. From everything that he had seen, their mod souls had been very well made and acted almost exactly like them… much to Ishida's annoyance. He still didn't like the idea of another one of him walking around.

But, the more he thought about it that was the only difference that he had spotted between the two girls. The other thing that worried him was how much that small little aspect was bothering him.

He was a little surprised at how quickly they had made it to Sado's and found the young man. He quickly joined up with them and they all headed out into town. "Wait," Ishida said as they were walking. "Won't it look bad if three teens are wandering around in town on a school day?" he asked.

At first Inoue looked like she wanted to ask why he only counted three. Then she remembered that no one else was probably going to be able to see Ichigo and Rukia since they were in their Shinigami forms.

"Eh," Ichigo said. "It's a nice day. I'm sure we're not the only ones that are skipping today."

Ishida muttered something about it was all right for Ichigo but the others didn't seem very bothered by being caught outside of class. After all, they all had stand-ins back at school so even if someone spotted them, no one would believe that they hadn't been in school anyway.

"I know," Inoue said. "How about we go and get some lunches and bring them to the river for a picnic?"

"Yes, that sound's great, Inoue," Rukia said and the girls quickly launched into a discussion on what they needed to get.

The boys were fairly glad that Rukia seemed to be able to talk Inoue out of some of the more exotic of combinations she was considering putting together as they approached the store. "We're going to have to be the ones to do the shopping," Ishida said, including himself, Chad, and Inoue.

Ichigo and Rukia said they'd wait outside while they got what they needed. Ichigo noticed Rukia's smile fade a little as the other three disappeared into the store. "I wish he were here too," he said to her.

She was startled at Ichigo's words but quickly recovered. "Yes," she sighed as she looked up at him. "It doesn't seem quite right to be having such a good time without Renji."

Ichigo nodded and said, "He's going to be all right, Rukia. You know that."

She forced a smile at him saying, "Of course I know that." She gave him a punch in the arm and said, "That doesn't mean that I'm not going to worry about him."

Ichigo nodded and smiled at her. "Yeah, I know," he said. "We'll just have to do this again when this is all over with and include him."

"You got it," Rukia told him.

The others came out of the store then, loaded down with food and other supplies for a nice picnic.

They went down to the river and spread out a blanket where they set their food up. Inoue had also gotten a ball at the store and she, Rukia, and Chad went a little ways away from the blanket to toss it around after they had all eaten. Ichigo and Ishida stayed at the blanket and just stared out at the rushing river below them.

"What do you think Atsushi's dimension is going to be like?" Ichigo said after a while of silence between them.

It took Ishida a moment to pull himself out of his own thoughts before he could answer. "I have no idea," he said. "Every dimension seems to be completely different. I've been to all the known ones now besides the Valley of Screams, which you described to us, and the Spirit King's dimension. From all of that, I know that there is no way to know what to expect."

Ichigo sighed and leaned back. "I hate this not knowing what is coming."

Ishida nodded. "It is difficult to be prepared when you don't have all of the information." He glanced at Ichigo then and said, "But you always seem to be at your best when you don't have a plan, Ichigo."

Ichigo cracked an eye open and looked up at Ishida. "That's because I don't usually have a plan. You're the one that manages to be able to think things through even when you don't have all of the information."

Ishida looked away and directed his attention back out at the river. "We really are opposites, aren't we, Ichigo?" he said softly.

Ichigo let out a slight laugh as he sat up again and said, "Yeah, I guess we are. No wonder we had such a rocky start."

Ishida winced before turning and telling the Shinigami, "I hope that you realize how sorry I am about all of that, Ichigo."

Ichigo looked at him slightly surprised by the Quincy's apology. "Of…Of course I know," he told him. "I've known ever since you saved my life right after I cut that Gillian."

Ishida swallowed and then nodded. He knew that Ichigo had forgiven him long ago for that, but he had never actually said that he was sorry before.

"Uryuu…" Ichigo said. "…What brought this on?"

Ishida looked back to the river and was silent a moment. "I guess," he said after a little time to collect his thoughts. "That, with everything that we've been through since then and what we're about to do now, that it was well past time that I at least said something. I suppose I've always known that you have never held a grudge or anything, but I just felt that I need to at least say something."

Ichigo stared at his friend a moment before shaking his head and then turning his attention to the water as well. "I don't think I will ever completely understand you, Quincy," he said. "But you don't ever have to worry about whether or not I forgive you for anything. Whatever happens, it will always be washed away between us."

They sat in silence for a while then, just watching the river splash and roll by. Finally, Inoue came running up to them laughing. "Kurosaki-kun! Ishida-kun! Come and join us. We're going to try and catch dragonflies!"

The two boys exchanged a look before they got up and followed the overexcited Inoue down to the water's edge. Ishida followed right behind her as Rukia and Chad spread out and walked a little ways away. He glanced back and noticed that Ichigo was hanging back a little from the waters edge.

"Oh look!" Inoue exclaimed, drawing Ishida's attention back to her. "There's a pretty red one!" She reached a hand out towards it, holding her finger out, but it quickly swooped away from her.

She frowned and then looked for another one. "What are you doing, Inoue-san?" Ishida asked her.

"I want to get one to land on my finger," she said as she wandered just a little further down the river towards another that was hovering in the air over there. "When I was little," she explained as she walked. "I used to come down to the river with my brother and he could always get them to land on his finger. All he had to do was hold it out for them and they would land. I always wanted them to do that for me, but I still haven't managed it."

Ishida watched her wander further away and then thrust her finger out towards another dragonfly. This time it was an iridescent green one.

He glanced back and saw that Ichigo had wandered off towards where Rukia and Chad were. He turned then and came up behind a disappointed Inoue since that dragonfly had avoided her as well.

"Inoue-san," he said softly as he reached a hand out towards her. "I can help you, if you would like," he said a little hesitantly.

She looked at his hand and then up at his face and smiled. "Really! You can!" He nodded to her and then gently reached out and took her left hand with his own.

"You have to be still," he explained to her as he stood just behind her with her back just barely brushing against his front. He carefully closed his hand around her fingers except for her index finger. He then very slowly and gently guided her hand towards another hovering green dragonfly.

He could hear her breath quicken as she saw that it was beginning to drift down towards her finger. At the sound of her breath, though, it jerked back up. But before she could exclaim her displeasure, Ishida said very softly into her ear, "Patience. Be still."

He held her hand in place and, little by little, the tiny creature started to drift down towards her finger again. After what felt like forever, the dragonfly finally alighted gently on the tip of her finger.

Her quick breathing suddenly stopped all together as she held her breath. After a moment and it was still there, slowly waving its wings up and down, she carefully began to breathe again and turned her face to look at Ishida.

His face was right beside hers as he was still leaning over her shoulder and holding her hand out. He had to catch his own breath at the brilliance of the smile on her face and the happy tears that sparkled in her eyes.

He felt a stirring in the pit of his stomach at the lovely sight of her joy. She had never seemed so beautiful than that very moment and he was surprised at his sudden desire to close the short distance between them and touch his lips to hers.

Instead, he very slowly and carefully released his hold of her hand and pulled his hand back. He was slow and steady enough that he didn't disturb the tiny insect as he moved. A moment later, he had put a bit more distance between his body and hers and watched as she returned her enraptured attention to the creature. He stood there, watching her still form staring at the dragonfly as if she had finally accomplished her life long dream.

Ishida shook his head to himself thinking how sweet and simple her dreams must be if something like this can cause her such joy. A part of him wished that he could have such simple wishes, but nothing for him was ever so simple.

After a while longer, the dragonfly suddenly beat its wings and then took off again. Inoue finally let out a large sigh and brought her arm down. She turned then and faced Ishida. She had even more joyful tears spilling down her face as she said very softly to him, "Thank you, Ishida-kun."

He forced himself not to look away from her intense gaze and replied, "You're welcome, Inoue-san. I'm glad that I could help."

Just then Ichigo walked up behind them and said, "Hey, we should probably get going to the shop now."

Inoue immediately turned her head away and quickly wiped off her tears. Ishida turned to face Ichigo and said, "Yes, we'll be right behind you."

Ichigo looked between the two of them, but didn't say anything as he nodded and then walked back up the river back towards where Chad and Rukia were picking up their picnic.

"Inoue-san…" he said to her.

"I'm all right, Ishida-kun," she said quickly as she wiped off the last of the evidence she had been crying. "I… I just thought that there was something wrong with me that they wouldn't land for me."

Ishida frowned slightly at her words. "But you've showed me, again, that I just need to have a little more patience with myself is all," she said with a brilliant smile. She suddenly stepped up to him and swiftly leaned up on her toes and pecked her lips against his.

"Thank you so much, Ishida-kun," she said to him and then turned and quickly hurried to help the others finish with the clean up.

Ishida stood there a moment, more than a little flabbergasted at what had just happened. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of the whole exchange. Was she just so happy that he had taught her how to charm a dragonfly that she didn't know any other way to express it? Or was there something more behind her actions?

For once, his mind seemed to be completely in a fog. He couldn't think his way logically out of this situation and he wasn't sure what, if anything, he should do now. Finally, he just decided that it would be best if he just brushed it off as Inoue being Inoue and turned and walked back to the rest of the group.

When he reached them, they had completely packed up their picnic and were ready to leave. "All right," Ichigo said as he glanced as saw that Ishida had met up with them again. "Let's get going."


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: And I'm back! Thanks for the reviews from last week. That was really my favorite chapter to write so far and I had a lot of fun with it. This chapter I also had a lot of fun with and I hope you all like it too. Please read and review! Thanks!

Chapter 18

The sun was just beginning to set when the group arrived at the shop. Tessai met them outside and then ushered them downstairs to the training grounds. As they rounded one of the rock formations, they saw Yoruichi talking to Urahara near by the place where he had set up the pillars before to open the gate to Soul Society.

Yoruichi seemed to have a slight frown on her face as she suddenly turned away from him and walked in their direction. "Good luck," she told them as she got closer. "I hope you can take care of this before we have to do anything here." She then headed for the ladder.

Rukia stepped back from the rest of the group as they continued on towards Urahara and reached out, grabbing Yoruichi by the arm. The older woman stopped and looked at her. All Rukia had to do was meet her eyes and Yoruichi sighed before saying, "Make sure to tell that thick headed friend of yours to bring them all back in one piece."

Rukia continued to stare at Yoruichi a moment before she released her hold on Yoruichi's arm and nodded once. "I'll make sure he knows to take care of _him_," she told her with a slight nod in Urahara's direction.

Yoruichi nodded once swiftly before she turned and then quickly ascended the ladder to the shop above.

Rukia hurried to meet up with the rest of the group that was now gathered around Urahara. "Welcome, everyone!" he said with a grin. "I hope that you two were satisfied with the mod souls I made you last night," he said, addressing Inoue and Ishida.

Inoue quickly exclaimed how happy she was and praised and thanked Urahara for his hard work. Ishida simply nodded and told him thank you. Urahara ignored his shortness and basked in the praise that Inoue was giving him.

"No, no," he said after listening to her for a few moments. "It wasn't much, really. I'm just glad I was able to complete them both." He turned then to Chad and said, "I'm sorry that I didn't have enough time to make one for you. But Cloud has done a great job at impersonating you before." He winked at Chad as he turned and walked a few steps towards the planted pillars.

"Not a problem," Chad muttered as they followed Urahara.

Rukia came up behind Ichigo then and grabbed his hand, pulling him just a little bit back from the others. "Ichigo," she said to him softly.

He paused and looked down at her. "What is it, Rukia?"

"I just want you to promise me that you're going to come back."

He stared at her a moment wondering where such a level of concern was coming from. "I… I promise, Rukia."

"It's just…" she paused and then pressed on. "It's just that, with Renji gone in Soul Society, it's very scary to be separated from you now too. You two are my pillars and I'm not sure what I'd do if I lost either one of you, let alone both."

Ichigo shook his head and said, "You're not going to lose either of us, Rukia. I promise you that."

She nodded and then said, "And if you could, make sure that you keep your eye on the others as well." She glanced towards Urahara. "Especially that one."

Ichigo followed her gaze and was startled at who she was looking at. "Urahara?" he asked. "Of all of us, I can't understand why you would be worried about him."

Rukia shrugged. "I just promised someone to tell you to keep an eye on him. Also, he has been doing an awful lot lately and he may be getting closer to his limit than he realizes."

Ichigo nodded, "Yeah, I suppose that could be true. Well I swear that we'll all be coming back from this trip, Rukia," he gave her his most determined look.

She nodded again and gave him a smile. "All right, I'm going to hold you to that, Ichigo. Now, I think that I should leave you all. This is your trip and I don't want be here when you leave."

She quickly wrapped her arms around Ichigo and gave him a hug before she turned and followed in Yoruichi's wake up the ladder.

Ichigo shook his head at how strange she was acting and then turned and joined up with the others.

"Where's Kuchiki-san?" Inoue asked as she sensed Ichigo come up behind her.

"She went back upstairs," he told all of them.

"That's good," Urahara said. "Opening the gate may be a bit dangerous so I prefer only those who are going down here for it."

They all exchanged a glance but didn't say anything. Urahara continued on, "Now, I'm going to ask you four to stay back a little bit while I do this."

They all took a few steps back as Urahara walked up and stood between the wooden pillars again, just as he had when he opened the gate to Soul Society. He spent a moment, staring straight ahead before he turned around and addressed the rest of them. "This is probably going to take a while for me to be able to open," he told them. "Please, do not interrupt me, no matter what. Also, I have no idea how long I'll be able to hold the passage, so please proceed as soon as it is open."

"What about you, Urahara-san?" Ishida asked.

"I hope that I will be able to follow after you. But I may need some help depending on how much energy and concentration it will take to maintain. Also, Ichigo, you will have to lead the rest, except for perhaps Ishida-san. As far as I can tell, there is no pathway to this other dimension, so you will have to create your own, much like in the distance between here and Hueco Mundo."

They all nodded their understanding. Urahara looked each of them over before nodding in reply and then turned to face the space between the poles again. He planted his cane in the ground in front of him, closed his eyes, and began to chant. For a while nothing at all seemed to be happening. After several long minutes, though, the teens began to see a shimmer between the two poles that looked almost like heat haze. As the minutes dragged on, the shimmer intensified, distorting the view of what was beyond the two poles nearly out of recognition.

Ichigo tore his eyes from the strange sight and looked at Urahara again. The man had brought this right hand up and faced it palm outward toward the forming gate. A spiral of red light began to form in the center of his palm, spinning faster and faster.

A gust of wind suddenly rushed at them, causing them all to bring up an arm to block out the dust that flew into their eyes. Ichigo watched as Urahara's hat flew by him and off into the distance behind. When he looked back, he could see that the red light from Urahara's hand had become larger and brighter. His hair and cloak were being whipped about by the gusting wind, making it look like he was about to take off.

Through all of it, his eyes remained closed, though Ichigo could tell that he was feeling the strain. Beads of sweat formed along his forehead, only to be caught up in the wind and thrown free from his face. The arm that he held extended forward was beginning to shake as the red light brightened even further.

"How much more can he take?" Ishida shouted into the wind as he came to stand directly beside Ichigo.

Ichigo didn't answer but kept his eyes locked on Urahara. The shopkeeper hooked his cane around his left wrist and slowly brought that hand up, grasping the wrist of his right hand and holding it steady in front of him.

Suddenly Urahara's eyes flew open and he gasped as the red light in his hand shot forward. It struck the area of distortion and diffused over the entire space between the two poles. One final blast of air hit them, knocking Inoue and Ishida back. Chad caught Inoue and Ichigo reached out and stopped Ishida from sliding very far.

They all looked back at the scene before them as soon as the wind suddenly cut off. Now, between the two poles, was a gaping expanse of red, swirling mist. Ichigo released his hold on Ishida's arm and quickly rushed forward. He glanced at Urahara as he ran by and saw him slowly lowering his hand but his lips were still moving in a chant.

Urahara went to take a step forward, but his right leg gave out and he began to pitch towards the ground.

"Urahara!" Ichigo called and was about to turn around but Chad was there, catching Urahara's right arm and pulling it over his own shoulder. Chad nodded to Ichigo to proceed and the Shinigami reluctantly turned and entered the red gateway. Inside he found a red void much like the black one that separated the real world from Hueco Mundo. But at the edges of this red void, two black walls loomed in the distance, marking where this realm of red ended. He used the technique that he had learned in the Hueco Mundo crossing to solidify the spirit particles and make a bridge through the red mist.

Inoue was close on his heels, following the rather unstable path that he created. As he glanced back over his shoulder, Ishida had followed behind Inoue but was using his own variation of his Hirenkyaku to propel himself through the void. Chad was last to join the path while supporting Urahara.

Ichigo looked back at Chad and they shared a nod confirming that the larger boy was in charge of the ailing ex-Shinigami. Ichigo concentrated as best he could to make a stable pathway for the others, but he was never very good at that sort of thing.

He heard a gasp from Inoue behind him as she stumbled and nearly pitched off the edge of the pathway. He was about to turn around to grab her when suddenly Ishida was there, catching her and pulling her up on his disk of spirit particles.

Ishida looked at Ichigo and said, "I can carry Inoue from here. Just make sure that you keep that path stable for Sado and Urahara-san."

"You just make sure not to drop Inoue," Ichigo yelled back as he returned to running.

"Thank you, Ishida-kun," Inoue said as Ishida created a slightly larger disk for them both to stand on. He kept his left arm wrapped around her waist though, making sure that she stayed stable as he propelled the disk through the void.

They ran for some ways before all of a sudden, Urahara stumbled again, unable to run anymore even with Chad's aid. Chad didn't miss a step as Urahara started to fall, he swept the older man up into his arms and continued to run while carrying him.

Urahara gave him a slightly grateful look but was still maintaining the chant that kept their passageway open so he couldn't do anything else. Ichigo glanced back and saw that Chad was now carrying Urahara. That meant that they really didn't have much time left before the so-called shopkeeper was no longer able to maintain the gate.

"Uryuu!" Ichigo called. When Ishida looked at him, Ichigo nodded back towards Chad and Urahara. Ishida took in the sight, nudged his glasses up his face, nodded in understanding to Ichigo, and then gripped Inoue a little tighter before increasing his speed.

Ichigo also put on a new burst of speed, hoping that he could maintain a stable enough bridge for Chad to follow along at that velocity. It wasn't much longer, though, before Ishida called out to him. "Ichigo!"

Ichigo glanced up at Ishida and saw that he was looking off to his left. Ichigo saw that the black walls that had appeared solid when they had entered there were beginning to ripple. Glancing to his right, he saw that the same thing was happening there as well. He also noticed that the walls seemed to be narrowing in on them.

"Look!" Inoue called as she pointed straight ahead. "We're almost there!"

Far in the distance, a pinprick of white light could be seen. But even as they saw this, they also saw that the black curtains were beginning to close in on that spot of white even faster than where they currently were.

"Damn it!" Ichigo cried, trying to run even faster. As he did, he heard a grunt from Chad behind him and a crunch of the spirit pathway crumbling. Ichigo looked back and saw Chad recovering from a stumble. Ichigo was not doing a very good job at keeping a solid path.

"Ichigo…" Chad said to him.

"I know! I know!" he called back. He had to stabilize the path otherwise they were never going to make it out of there. Ichigo closed his eyes and reached behind him, taking a hold of the wrapped tang of his Zanpakuto.

He felt the power from Zangetsu flow into him and he took a moment to center himself before pouring that extra burst of power into the pathway below him. When he opened his eyes again, he could tell that he had managed to make the path stronger and less treacherous, though it still had the ragged edges from before.

_It'll have to do_, he thought to himself.

Chad glanced down at Urahara. The man had his eyes closed again and his breathing between lines of chant was getting ragged. His right arm was wrapped around Chad, loosely holding on to his shoulder. The left griped his cane tightly, holding it to his chest.

Looking ahead, the light was getting much closer, but the black to either side was now at the edges of the white, beginning to narrow the opening. "Hold on, Urahara-san." Chad whispered to the man in his arms.

"Hinagiku, Baigon, Lily! I reject!" Inoue's voice rang out. Three streaks of yellow light burst from either side of Inoue's head and rushed for the opening ahead.

But, even as she began to call her powers, Urahara's eyes suddenly flew open and he clenched his hand on Chad's shoulder. When Chad looked down at him, he was shaking his head in a negative.

"Inoue, stop!" Chad called; interpreting that Urahara didn't want Inoue to interfere. But it was too late. The girl had already set her flowers in motion and had just formed their triangle shield and slipped into the space between the black currents.

The moment that the black came in contact with the shield, though, the yellow glow suddenly shattered, sending her fairies shooting back to Inoue. At the same time, the blackness gave a giant shudder and, instead of gradually closing, the curtains rushed towards each other to block off the exit.

Chad gasped as Urahara suddenly flipped his cane around and gasped the end of it in his right hand. With one fluid motion, he pulled his Zanpakuto clear and pointed it straight at the white expanse that was left. "Sing… Benihime…" he gasped in between lines of chant.

A streak of red shot out of the end at incredible speed. In a flash, before the blackness could completely block off their exit, Urahara's blood mist shield wedged the opening. But it was obvious that it was not going to hold for very long. As soon as it had materialized between the currents, cracks began to run across the shield's surface. It had hardly been in place more than a few seconds when the edges began to crumble and flake off as the blackness pressed on it.

Ishida glanced down at the others. Ichigo was running as fast as he could while still maintaining the bridge. Chad was close on his heels but Urahara didn't look like he was going to be able to maintain consciousness much longer. They needed to find a way to wedge that exit open for just a few more moments.

"Inoue-san, hold on," he said to her as he wrapped his arm a little more tightly around her side. She responded by holding on to him tighter just as he leaned forward and accelerated towards the gap.

Holding his right arm out to the side, Ishida summoned his spirit bow. He judged his speed and distance accordingly and reached the blood mist shield just as it shattered. The moment that it did, he turned his body and thrust his bow into the space that the shield had been a moment before.

He gasped with effort as the currents slammed into the edges of his bow. It was taking all that he had to maintain enough spirit particles in the bow to be able to hold the edges back. "Ishida-kun!" Inoue exclaimed, fearing that he may have hurt himself in the maneuver.

"Inoue-san," he gasped at her. "Please, go through." He nodded towards the small gap below his bow that was wedged open. He saw that the space that he was currently holding open was probably only big enough to let her through out of all of them.

"But, Ishida-kun…" she said.

He used his left arm that had been around her to thrust her forward, "Please, go," he told her. She looked up at him and saw sweat beginning to bead on his forehead as his right arm began to shake with the strain of holding his bow intact.

She blinked at him and then nodded once, turned, and jumped through the gap into the whiteness beyond. Ishida watched as she jumped through and traced her path. He could see her land only a couple of meters below and out from the hole. She turned and looked back at him as a breeze began to tug at her long hair.

He pulled his eyes away from her and looked back, Ichigo was nearly there. He threw his left hand out towards Ichigo and cried, "Ichigo! Your Zanpakuto!"

Ichigo frowned up at him, wondering what Ishida could possible want with his Zanpakuto. Suddenly he remembered the time when the two of them had faced that Menos Grande for the first time. They had discovered that if Ishida touched the sword while Ichigo was holding it, the size of Ishida's bow grew.

Still grasping the hilt of his sword in his right hand, Ichigo pulled it free from his back but maintained the wrapping around it. He quickly switched hands as he made it to Ishida and reached out with his left hand, gasping the Quincy's with the tang of the sword between their hands.

Instantly Ishida's bow tripled in size, forcing the walls of black back outward and significantly widening the hole beneath the bow. Ishida glanced down and saw that Ichigo's path didn't make it all the way to the exit because he had leapt to meet Ishida and joined him on the spirit particle disk.

"Inoue-san!" Ishida called through the gap to her. "Use you shield to bridge the distance!"

Inoue nodded and sent her tri-sided shield back through the hole and formed it in the gap between where Ichigo's spirit particle bridge ended and to the exit. Chad reached it just as she had it in place. He didn't hesitate for a second as his feet switched from the bridge to the shield. He continued to run forward and then dove under the bow and through the gap, still clinging to Urahara.

He hit the ground on the other side and tumbled with the extra weight that he was carrying. He managed to hold on to the shopkeeper, though, and keep him from hitting the ground. He turned around in a crouch and sat Urahara on the ground while he held him up, facing the exit.

Ishida could see that the man was very nearly at his limit. He wasn't going to be able to maintain his chant any longer. The Quincy knew that as soon as Urahara broke off his chant, his bow would no longer be any match for the pressure of those black currents that were trying to slam shut on them.

"Your turn," Ishida said, looking at Ichigo.

"You won't be able to get through if I let go," Ichigo said, indicating his sword.

"You're right, you stupid Shinigami," Ishida said. He used their clasped hands and pulled Ichigo down so that he was bent over at the waist. As he did this, he swung Ichigo into position with his back to the gap. "Get going!" Ishida said, placing a foot on Ichigo's chest and shoving him backward through the hole as he released his hold on the Zanpakuto.

Ichigo's eyes went wide as he sailed backward through the gap under Ishida's bow even as it began to shrink. He just barely cleared the edges of the blackness that had rushed inward when Ishida broke contact with the sword.

"Uryuu!" Ichigo cried as he hit the ground below and looked up at Ishida. The Quincy was now gasping for breath as he struggled to maintain his bow's form under the extreme pressure.

He looked back at his friend, knowing that there was no way that he could manage to get through the exit now while still holding it open with his own bow. He had effectively trapped himself inside by using the bow as a wedge.

He looked down at each of them, eyes passing over Ichigo, to Inoue, to Chad, and then down at Urahara. His brow furrowed slightly as he saw the man crack his eyes open to look up at Ishida. He was slowly raising his right hand and closing it so that a single finger pointed at Ishida.

Suddenly a yellow rope like strand of energy shot out from Urahara's finger and launched itself under Ishida's bow, through the gap, and wound itself tightly around the Quincy's body. Ishida gasped as his left arm was bound to his side and his legs pinned together.

"Pull…" Urahara whispered up at Chad. Chad understood and reached out, grabbing Urahara's extended hand and yanked back on it. Ishida's body lurched forward, bow bending inward as it slipped through the gap. The currents slammed shut as soon as the bow had come free but Ishida's body was just missed by their closing as he sailed through the air, yanked out of the blackness by the Kido rope.

He hit the ground and rolled out of control as he dismissed his bow. As soon as he came to a stop, the rope disappeared and he slowly got up to his feet. "Uryuu!" Ichigo exclaimed as he rushed over to him.

"Ishida-kun!" Inoue said simultaneously, following close behind Ichigo.

With as much dignity as he could muster, Ishida stood and began to brush dust and dirt off of his outfit before adjusting his glasses and looking up at his friends.

Ichigo was standing in front of him, shaking his head, "Stupid Quincy," he muttered as he reached out and tapped Ishida on the shoulder. Suddenly Inoue threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and clinging tightly for a moment.

"I'm so glad you're all right," she muttered to him.

He gasped a little bit for breath both from the pressure that she was squeezing him with and out of surprise of this sudden closeness. "Th…thank you, Inoue-san," he said to her as she suddenly let go and looked down, slightly embarrassed by her reaction.

Ichigo gave them a strange glance, but Ishida just returned his look without comment before turning and looking over at Urahara and Chad. The shopkeeper seemed to have completely blacked out as soon as he had pulled Ishida free with Chad's assistance. The Quincy walked over to where Chad was still propping Urahara up on the ground and knelt beside them.

"Thank you," he said quietly to the unconscious man. He looked up at Chad and said, "And thank you, Sado-san."

Chad nodded to him only saying, "Aye."

Ishida stood up again, adjusted his glasses for good measure and then looked around at their surroundings. They were standing in what looked like a vast desert just before dawn. The sky in front of him had a red and pink glow that gradually blended into light blue, blue, navy, and then black the further from the horizon that he looked. In the blackness, brilliant white points of light sparkled far overhead.

"Interesting," Ishida muttered as he looked across the sky and behind them. "I would guess that this place is in perpetual dawn," he said.

"What makes you say that, Ishida-kun?" Inoue asked.

"Because the light hasn't shifted even in the slightest since I saw it through the exit. It kind of reminds me of how Hueco Mundo was always a starless night with a quarter moon."

"Only this is much prettier," Inoue said, looking over to the horizon with the frozen sunrise.

"The sky might look better," Ichigo said. "But there isn't much difference between this dry, cracked ground, and the sea of sand in Hueco Mundo." The dirt looked much like a dried desert floor. But, unlike those deserts, this one had rolling hills making it difficult to see for very far in the distance.

The others were nodding in agreement when Urahara let out a groan as he shifted in Chad's grasp. "Urahara-san," Ishida said, kneeling down in front of him again. They all gathered around and watched as Urahara slowly opened his eyes again.

"My, my," he said to them. "So many concerned faces…"

They all felt a wave of relief when they saw that he had finally come around again. "We were worried about you," Inoue said. "You didn't look too good."

"Naw," Urahara said as he began to sit forward. Chad tried to help him, but Urahara waved him off and moved on his own. "I'll admit that it was a bit more taxing than I had expected, but I'm a fast heal…" suddenly he gasped and fell backward again, forcing Chad to catch him.

"Urahara-san!" Ichigo exclaimed, taking a step forward. As he did so, a wave of dizziness hit him. He was forced to stab Zangetsu into the ground to brace himself upright.

"Ichigo!" Ishida and Chad both called.

"Kurosaki-kun!" Inoue said as she reached a hand out and touched his arm.

Urahara looked up at Ichigo through half lidded eyes and muttered, "I was afraid of this," before promptly losing consciousness again.


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Thanks again for the reviews and the interest. I hope that this one answers a few questions that I left hanging in the last one. Of course it brings up a few more too ; )

Enjoy!

Chapter 19

Yoruichi had quickly ascended the ladder and climbed up through the hatch into the shop. She didn't pause once she was out as she headed for the exit to the shop. As soon as she stepped outside, she stopped and then suddenly transformed into her cat persona. Once again wearing her black fur, she turned and nimbly leapt up onto some boxes besides the building and climbed up onto the roof.

She laid down then, on the shingles, and stared out towards the west and the setting sun, basking in the fleeting rays of the day's light. With a sigh, she began to go over the last conversation that she had just had with her childhood friend…

"_Kisuke," she said as she approached him from behind while he put the finishing touches on his gate set up._

_He paused and glanced back over his shoulder with one eye at her. He blinked once and then returned to what he was doing. "What is it that you want, Yoruichi," he asked her with his back still facing her._

"_Kisuke, this is ridiculous," she snapped at him. "You are being extremely childish."_

_He sighed as his shoulders slouched slightly but he didn't turn around when he addressed her again. "If you believe that of me, Yoruichi, then why do you keep coming back?" He turned then and faced her, keeping his eyes in shadow under the rim of his hat. "You lied to me, Yoruichi. You have purposefully kept information from me and have pointedly opposed many of my most recent decisions. Besides that, you have been working to torment our friends here. Now, tell me, how is it that I am being childish by refusing to talk to you rather than to openly challenge you for everything that you have done?" He spoke all of this gently and softly, but she could hear the edge to his words._

_She raised her chin to him at the mention of a challenge. She had never thought that he would ever speak of something like that to her. The part of her that was once a princess to her tribe and the leader of the Onmitsukido as well as the second division captain wanted to take that challenge right now. Her pride demanded that she put this man in his place. But she knew after much sparring matches that, though she could often beat him, the match was not necessarily guaranteed._

_More importantly though, to fight him now would no doubt only widen the gap that had grown between them. That was not something that she wanted to risk._

"_Kisuke," she said, using the same soft yet edged tone that he was. "I have only acted as I saw best. Isn't that what you have always done? You took Ichigo and have raised him up to be your personal fighter. You personally brought in Sado and Orihime and convinced them to nurture their own powers so that you could use them to your own ends. _

_You even went and convinced the Quincy to defy his own father to join that rescue mission for Orihime. And don't even pretend that your own guilt over having made her abduction possible didn't enter into that move."_

_Urahara sighed and then nodded, "Yes, I have used all of them for my own purposes. Ichigo more than anyone. But I have come to realize while working along side these teens that there is something more important than just finding the most logical and expedient path to achieve our goals. You may have noticed that they are always able to come out on top, no matter what the odds. You may also have noticed that they don't always follow the path that you or I try to set them on to come to those conclusions. That's because they all stay true to themselves and never compromise either their own integrity or friendships. That is something that I have greatly admired about them and something that I wish to incorporate into my own life."_

_He paused then and then raised his head enough so that he was looking her directly in the eye under the rim of his hat. "And that is why I am not yet ready to forgive you for your actions, Yoruichi. I'm not saying that I won't ever be able to, but just not yet. I had thought that this was a lesson that you had learned long before me, but clearly I was wrong. Your duty to Soul Society apparently never ended even though you fled from there at my side."_

_Yoruichi frowned at him, realizing that she was still not going to receive the response from him now, before he left for this dangerous mission, that she had hoped for._

"_Kisuke… Don't leave like this…"_

"_I'm sorry, Yoruichi, but I will not lie to you about this. Please, leave now." He turned his back to her again._

_Yoruichi swallowed, but kept her emotions under control. Mostly because she could hear the others approaching now. She turned from him and walked away, fearing that it may be the last time she saw him. _

Yoruichi let out another sigh as the last of the sunlight vanished over the horizon. "Please, make it back, Kisuke," she muttered to herself before curling up and closing her eyes for a cat nap.

XXX

Urahara had no idea how long it was before he finally was able to open his eyes again. He had had the feeling for sometime that there had been eyes on him while he lay there, unable to move. He couldn't remember the last time that he had felt so weak. In fact, he was certain that he had never gotten this exhausted before.

"My, oh my," he muttered as he cracked his eyes open and weakly placed a hand to his forehead. He could tell that he was lying on the ground with something folded up under his head, but he couldn't manage to move enough to see what his pillow was.

"Urahara-san," Ichigo's voice said from nearby.

The ex-Shinigami looked towards the voice and saw Ichigo sitting beside him. His Zanpakuto had been planted into the ground behind and he was using it to lean up against.

"Ah, Ichigo," Urahara said, allowing his hand to fall to the ground beside him. "Have I been out long?"

"Yeah," Ichigo said, leaning back against his sword again and looking off in the distance. "You had Inoue pretty worried."

Urahara lay there a moment longer before trying to sit up. He didn't manage on the first try but Ichigo's arm was behind his back, assisting him for the next. "You're still in pretty bad shape, man." Ichigo said to him.

Urahara eyed him before asking, "And how are you?"

Ichigo started and then narrowed his eyes before asking, "You know what's going on, don't you? You know why I suddenly feel as if I'm losing my energy."

Urahara sighed. "I was afraid that something like this might happen." He seemed to be gaining some of his strength back as he lifted his hand and rubbed the back of his neck while saying, "My, my, something like this after having depleted myself in the crossing is not good."

"What is this?" Ichigo demanded.

"Oh, yes," Urahara dropped his hand and looked at Ichigo. "Well it makes sense that Atsushi would create a world where it would be difficult for the Shinigami to be a threat to him…"

"Meaning?"

"Meaning that I suspect that the atmosphere of this place probably has something in it that dampens, maybe drains, the spirit energy of Shinigami. We know that Atsushi is capable of doing this. We saw the evidence back at the hospital the other night."

Ichigo's eyes grew large at this piece of information. "You…you mean…"

"That the two of us are not going to be at our best from here on."

"But… but you were already weak from the crossing. At this rate…"

"I suspect that it is draining rather than dampening," Urahara said with a sigh. "But, it seems that I am not dying, so the drain must be just slightly lower than what I am able to regenerate. Still… at this rate, I won't be anywhere near full strength for a matter of weeks, if not months, if I stay in this place."

"So you won't be able to open a gate back for that long?" Ichigo exclaimed.

Urahara nodded. "It seems so. Either we find out a way to use Atsushi's method of getting back to the real world, or we're stuck here for the time being."

"But… what about me? I don't feel too off, but I definitely can tell that there is a difference in my reiatsu."

"I would suspect that you are able to sense the drain, but it isn't really affecting you too much. Remember, though the use of your reiatsu to create the spirit particle bridge through the void usually doesn't make much difference to you, as soon as you crossed over to this place, you were unable to regain what you had used as fast as you normally would. That is probably why you felt dizzy for a moment."

Ichigo nodded. "But then that means that I'll have to be careful with how much energy I do use."

"Yes, you won't have the almost instantaneous regeneration of your energy that you normally experience. If you get in a fight, you are going to have to end it quickly and hope that you don't have to fight again too soon afterward."

Ichigo sighed again as he thought that over. It sounded good in theory, but that wasn't how things tended to go for him. "Oh," Urahara said as he glanced around. "Where are the others?"

"Huh? Oh, they went to scout around."

"Ah, and left you to watch me, huh?"

Ichigo shrugged, "We still didn't know why I felt like I did when no one else seemed to have a problem. They insisted that I stay behind for now." He gave a slight scowl that Urahara was able to interpret that they had to do some pretty strict insisting.

"So none of them seem to be affected…?" Urahara said.

Ichigo eyed him, sensing there was something that the man was trying to get out of him. "No, they're fine," he said.

"Nothing different?"

Now Ichigo knew that Urahara suspected something else. "Not that I know… what are you thinking?"

Urahara shrugged. "Just wondering is all…"

"Che," Ichigo sounded as he looked away and searched the area for signs of their friends returning. He knew that he wasn't going to get anything more out of Urahara until he was able to put more together. It just wouldn't do for his style to reveal any information until he had all the pieces himself already.

As he turned his head, he noticed that Ishida and Inoue were walking back towards them. Inoue waved at him when he spotted her and hurried to meet up with them. Ishida continued to walk, allowing Inoue to run on ahead.

"Kurosaki-kun!" Inoue exclaimed when she was nearer. "Urahara-san! You're awake!"

"Yes," he said smiling at her. "Sorry I made you worry."

"Inoue had tried to heal you," Ichigo explained. "That's why she was so worried. They had told her that there was nothing that they could do and then popped back into her hair pins without any more explanation."

Urahara nodded, "Yes, their rejection wouldn't have been able to restore the reiatsu. They specialize in physical restoration."

The two had this little exchange as Inoue got closer. When she was beside them, they stopped. "Urahara-san! Are you all right?"

"Not completely, but there's not much to do about that."

Ichigo stood up and pulled his sword from the ground. He glanced up and saw that Ishida had now gotten within hearing distance. "Urahara says that there's something here that drains Shinigami reiatsu."

Ishida came to stand beside Ichigo. "That makes sense," he said as he nudged his glasses. "Atsushi would probably want to limit any Shinigami's power that might make it here to challenge him."

"My thought exactly," Urahara said as he reached a hand up to Ichigo to help him to stand. Ichigo took his hand and helped him up.

"But…" Inoue said.

"We're fine for right now," Urahara quickly assured her. "I just won't be of much help to you for quite some time."

"So," Ishida said. "Atsushi didn't expect company at either of your level then…" He walked over and bent down to pick up the thing Urahara had been using as a pillow a moment ago from the ground.

"What makes you say that, Ishida-kun?" Inoue asked.

"Because," Urahara said, watching as the Quincy brushed the dirt off of the folded white fabric he had retrieved. He realized that it was a Quincy mantel. "He would have made sure the drain would have been great enough to have knocked us out rather than just slow us down. If a Shinigami of lesser level had showed up here, it is conceivable that they wouldn't just be incapacitated, but possibly killed."

Ishida tucked the folded spare mantel into his uniform while Inoue gasped as she put a hand over her mouth.

"I'm glad Rukia didn't come after all," Ichigo said as he continued to scan the area for any sign of Chad.

"Kuchiki-san probably wouldn't have been in danger of death," Urahara said. "But she also wouldn't have been able to do much of anything to help either… Kind of like me."

"You'll get better," Ichigo said in a half distracted voice, still searching for Chad.

Urahara turned to Ishida and said, "Thank you for the pillow. It is very handy for you to bring a spare mantel with you."

Ishida fixed his glasses as he replied, "That's what I told the others, too."

Urahara grinned and then reached inside of his cloak and pulled something out. With a shake, the green and white fabric snapped open and they could see that it was another hat. "Having spare parts to a uniform can always be useful," he said as he plopped the hat on his head and pulled it down just enough to shade his eyes.

Ichigo had glanced back at Urahara for this exchange but rolled his eyes at both the shopkeeper and the Quincy and returned to scanning the horizon.

"By the way, Urahara-san," Ishida said. "How come Inoue's shield caused the passage to close faster when it touched it?"

"Oh yes," Inoue said. "I'm so sorry about that, Urahara-san. I had no idea…"

"Of course you didn't," Urahara interrupted her. "I should have warned you about that but I didn't realize how difficult the crossing was going to be on me. But what happened was, your rejection field, canceled out my own method of keeping it open. I, was in effect, using my own version of rejection to keep the sealing currents back from our passage."

Inoue seemed a little confused at his explanation, but Urahara now followed Ichigo's gaze and said, "Shouldn't Sado-san have returned by now?"

"Yeah," Ichigo said and then without another word started walking in the direction that he had been looking.

Just as he took a step, a sudden flash of light in the direction caught all of their attention. "Chad!" Ichigo exclaimed as he realized that that flash had been caused by Chad's power. He took off at a run in that direction.

Just as he did, Chad appeared into view, running back towards Ichigo and the others. As soon as he saw Ichigo, he stopped and turned around. A second later several large creatures came into view, chasing after him. They towered over Chad even though they were hunched over. Their long arms with fierce knuckles dragged on the ground in front of them as they lumbered towards the fleeing teen. They had elongated skull looking heads and wore a large shield on their right arms.

Ichigo cursed under his breath as he pulled Zangetsu off of his back and starting running towards Chad.

Ishida opened his mouth as he momentarily froze at the sight and muttered, "Hell's Wills."

Urahara frowned at him and said, "This isn't good."

"What!" Inoue demanded as she looked between Ishida and Urahara, both wearing very worried expressions. "What are those things?"

Ishida seemed to snap out of his fear and then grabbed her hand and pushed her back towards Urahara. "Urahara-san, take Inoue-san and get going. We'll try and hold them back!"

"Ishida-kun!" Inoue cried towards him, but he had already vanished from sight, using his Hirenkyaku. Urahara reached out and grabbed her hand as she started to head in the direction of the others as well.

"Not this time, Inoue-san," he told her and pulled her along with him, fleeing from the approaching monsters.

"But Urahara-san!" she screamed. "What are those things? Why aren't we helping them?"

"They're Hell's Wills," He quickly told her even as he continued to pull her along. "They are creatures from hell that are used to punish the sinners there. And right now both of us will be completely useless against them."

Inoue glanced over her shoulder and tried to watch as her friends faced off against creatures from hell itself.

Chad pulled his arm back and fired off another blast of energy at the creatures. One of them took the blast at full and staggered a bit and fell behind the others, but he didn't go down.

Ichigo pulled Zangetsu back and cried, "Getsuga Tensho!" a slice of blue light flew from the end of his swung sword and soared through the center of the nearest Hell's Will. It stopped for a moment and stared at the slice through its body before it began to slant and slide apart.

Ichigo smiled and was about to launch into another attack on the next one when he suddenly stumbled. _Damn,_ he thought. _That uses a lot of power_.

Chad looked back at him. "Ichigo!" he called and was about to run back to his friend to see what was wrong when a Hell's Will reached him. He looked up just in time to be able to bring his right arm to up to block a hit from the giant fist. He was driven into the ground, forming a carter around him and leaving him slightly stunned.

The creature reached out towards the stunned Chad with its huge fingers as its mouth hung open hungrily. Ichigo saw that it was going to try and grab Chad to eat him. Since they weren't in hell, Ichigo was pretty sure that that would be the end for his friend. Even if it wasn't, the only way that he would be coming back was as a denizen of hell. But just as the fingers were about to reach out and curl around Chad was when a giant blue arrow sailed over his head, slicing through the beast and turning it to dust in an instant. Chad and Ichigo both looked back and saw Ishida standing behind Chad still poised to fire another shot.

"That was huge," Ichigo said as he ran up and reached a hand out to help Chad up.

Chad nodded but turned back to face the next Hell's Will. Ichigo glanced over his shoulder at Ishida and saw that the Quincy also seemed to be a little stunned at the power of his own shot. "Snap out of it, Quincy!" Ichigo called as he turned and rushed towards another Hell's Will.

Ishida shook his head and pushed the surprise at his own power aside and turned towards another of the creatures that didn't have Chad's or the Shinigami's attention. A huge Hell's Will was lumbering towards him, reaching out its hand to grab him. He drew back on his bow and fired an arrow directly into the palm of its hand. The hand was instantly disintegrated as the arrow passed through it and traveled up part of its arm until the elbow where it deflected and then struck it right in the chest.

The creature stood up straighter and looked down at its chest and stared dumbly at the hole that now went all the way through it. It then looked down at where its hand used to be with the same dumb expression.

Ishida took a step back as he drew another arrow. But even as he prepared himself, he watched a hand slowly growing from the empty stump that had been on the Hell's Will arm. The hole in the chest was also rapidly closing.

As he realized that these things had high speed regeneration, he glanced over at the one that Ichigo had sliced through a moment ago. He took a breath as he saw that it was still standing. Part of it was slightly disconnect and at an angle from the rest of its body, but it was still standing and was heading towards Chad again.

Chad seemed to be damaging the one that he was throwing punches at enough to keep it from being able to grab him, but the creature was healing too fast for Chad to be able to bring down.

With a glance to the other side, he saw that Ichigo was hacking away at another one, but even as he took off a limb, it would grow back before the Shinigami could remove another. Ishida wondered for a moment why Ichigo didn't just use his Getsuga Tensho to take the thing apart, but then he realized that that probably would use far too much energy for him to be able to use multiple times in a row.

To his knowledge, these creatures didn't have that ability when he had encountered them in hell. That meant that they had probably been altered by Atsushi just like the human and Shinigami souls that they had already encountered.

Ishida returned his attention to his own creature after only a very quick glance to the others. It looked like he might be the only one that was going to be able to buy the others enough time to retreat. He pulled far back on his bow as the newly regenerated hand began to reach for him again. He then released his hold and a massive volley of spirit arrows shot out.

The hail of arrows obliterated the hand and arm and then crashed into the body. It let out a roar as it pitched backward, still taking the spirit bolts. As it fell, it suddenly turned into a giant puff of black dust so that nothing of substance even connected with the ground.

Ishida turned and then launched into the air so that he was above the one that Ichigo had injured before. He pulled back on his bow and let off another hail of arrows, burying them deep in the Hell's Will, also grinding it into dust.

He landed then and glanced over at Chad to see how he was doing with his opponent. It looked like the teen was finally managing to hit it hard and fast enough so that it wasn't as able to recover as well before taking another hit.

Ishida was glad because after what he had just done, he was feeling pretty drained. He didn't know how or why his arrows were so much more powerful all of a sudden. It was certainly welcome since he was sure that his normal power would never have been enough to inflict this much damage on these creatures. But still channeling that much force through his body was rapidly depleting his own energy.

He was just looking up and over towards Ichigo when his attention was snapped back to Chad when he let out a cry of alarm. Chad seemed to have moved back from the creature to put some distance between them but he was now lying prone on the ground.

The Hell's Will's hand looked like it was clutching something on the ground as it began to pull its hand closer. As the hand moved, Chad's body was dragged along the ground, moving closer to the creature as well.

Ishida was stunned by this new ability and he wondered for a moment how that thing could possibly be doing it. Then he got an idea and looked at the scene slightly differently. He could see then that the creature had somehow managed to grab a hold of Chad's spirit threads and was using them to pull Chad closer.

Ishida raised his bow and shot off one huge arrow, slicing through the creature's hand. The hand crashed to the ground and its grip on the spirit threads was released. Chad scrambled back to his feet, looking bewildered at what had just happened.

"Sado!" Ishida cried as he suddenly appeared between Chad and the creature. "It was grabbing your spirit threads. You're not going to be able to compete against that. You should go and make sure Inoue-san and Urahara-san are all right."

Chad stood there a moment as he watched Ishida pull back on his bow again and let off another hail of arrows that decimated the creature he had been trying to bring down for a while now. He nodded once and then turned and raced off after the other two members of their party.

After having finished off another Hell's Will, Ishida bent over, trying to catch his breath. He looked over at Ichigo and saw that he was also wearing his creature down. But that probably meant it was going to try and grab his spirit threads also.

If they were able to directly manipulate spirit threads, then there wasn't much that any of them could do to combat them. Then suddenly Ishida realized that he could at least make sure that his own threads stayed out of their reach. Normally, spirit threads waved about a person almost like kelp at the bottom of the ocean. But Ishida had used them as a means to control his own body when it had become paralyzed by wrapping them tightly around his limbs.

He closed his eyes a moment and concentrated on that technique that he had once used in desperation in Soul Society. He hadn't even known that he was able to do it until that moment. Now he needed to use it again, but not to control his injured body, but to keep the threads out of the Hell's Will's reach.

He could feel the threads responding to his will as they wrapped about his body securely, leaving nothing for the Hell's Will to be able to grab. As he opened his eyes, he was about to set off to help Ichigo when he suddenly heard a high pitched cry off in the distance.

He spun around and cried, "Inoue-san!" He could see that another set of Hell's Wills had come up on her and Urahara and he was fairly sure that the closest one had Urahara in a grip.

It was then that another cry came from Ichigo, dividing Ishida's attention. Ichigo was dangling in the air under the creature's lifted hand as if being held up by invisible wires. But the wires weren't invisible to Ishida now as he could see that the Hell's Will was holding a fist full of Ichigo's spirit threads.

Ichigo was flailing to try and break free from the creature, but he didn't even know what it was he was fighting against. Ishida knew that he had to end this quickly to be able to go and help the others but he didn't think that he was recovered enough from that last shot to make an arrow powerful enough to shoot off this one's hand.

He reached behind his back and pulled out a Seele Schneider and then rapidly fired the bladed arrow, slicing another arm off. Ichigo fell to the ground and then quickly climbed back to his feet. "Bankai!" he cried and transformed in a plume of black and red energy.

A second later, he unleashed a black Getsuga Tensho and turned the Hell's Will into a pile of dust. He turned then and faced Ishida who was already turning and running towards the other three.

XXX

"Urahara-san," Inoue said as she spared another glance back at the boys. "They need our help."

He paused in his retreat and looked back to see what was happening. They were halfway up another slope so they had a good vantage of the scene back there. Urahara watched as Chad and Ichigo struggled with their creatures but was surprised to see first one, and then another Hell's Will rendered to dust by Ishida.

He filed this information away for the time being as he shook his head and took a backward step up the slope. "No, they will be fine for now, Inoue-san. Right now, we will only get in their way. Neither of us has the power to fight against these things right now." He took another backward step and then turned around now that he was almost to the top of the slope.

His forward step took him right into the center of the open hand of another Hell's Will. Inoue spun around as he let out a strangled cry when the fingers snapped shut around his body. "Urahara-san!" she screamed. She brought her hands up to her hair pins and sent Tsubaki flying through the air, aimed to slice at the hand that was now lifting Urahara up off of the ground.

The little fairy passed by the wrist completely ineffective and unnoticed. Urahara struggled against the crushing grip but was unable to free himself as he was slowly brought further from the ground and closer to the now open mouth of the Hell's Will.

"This is not good," he gasped to himself as closed his eyes and started chatting under his breath. So he didn't notice that he had reached the thing's mouth and it was just about to bite down on him when Inoue sent her shield in, wedging its mouth open for a moment and keeping it from shoving Urahara down its throat.

But after a moment of confusion, it eventually managed to snap its jaw shut, shattering Inoue's shield and sending her fairies flying back to her. "Urahara-san!" she screamed again in desperation because she had nothing left to try.

He suddenly opened his eyes and yelled, "Hado 31, Shakkaho!" A blast of red erupted and obscured Inoue's sight for a moment. Suddenly Chad raced up beside her and dove to the ground with his arms outstretched. He caught the falling Urahara and then pulled him out of the way of the Hell's Will agitated stomping of its feet while it examined its injured hand.

Inoue rushed over to Chad and saw that Urahara was unconscious again and he now had large bloody burn on his chest. "Urahara-san," she called to him as she reached up to call out her healing fairies.

"Not now," Chad told her as he lifted Urahara over his shoulder and turned around. The creature that Urahara had just wounded had already recovered from the injury and a second Hell's Will was coming up behind it.

"We have to run," Chad told her as he turned and was about to race off in another direction. But he noticed that three more of the beasts were approaching from that way. He turned again and saw that now only one direction was clear.

"We're being herded!" Inoue exclaimed as she saw this too.

"No choice," Chad said, as he took off for the only clear direction. Inoue was close on his heels. Suddenly Ishida was behind her, imposing himself between his retreating friends and the approaching Hell's Wills.

"Ishida-kun!" Inoue exclaimed as she paused and turned around.

"Keep running, Inoue-san. Ichigo and I will take care of this."

Inoue stood there a moment, hesitant to leave them again. She saw Ichigo suddenly appear just above the Hell's Will that had tried to eat Urahara only a moment ago. He was in his Bankai form and unleashed a devastating Getsuga Tensho, destroying the Hell's Will.

Ishida drew his bow back and released an enormous arrow that sliced through the second creature, also obliterating it.

Inoue saw that they were going to be able to handle this and with more than a little reluctance, she turned and followed after Chad. So she didn't see as Ichigo suddenly landed on the ground, gasping and leaning heavily on his sword and Ishida's bow suddenly vanished as he also took deep, gasping breaths while eyeing up the other three creatures coming towards them.

"Well, this isn't very good," Ichigo said to Ishida.

"Che," Ishida said as he pushed his glasses up. "You have a gift for understatement, Ichigo."

Ichigo couldn't help but smile at his friend as he took another deep breath and pulled his sword point from the ground and straightened up to face the remaining foes. "Let's take care of this," he said.

Ishida nodded as he held his right arm out and, with an effort, called his bow back out. Suddenly three more Hell's Wills came lumbering over the rise to their left. "Over there too," Ishida said with a sigh as he nodded back towards where they had just come from. Another four of the creatures were headed towards them from there.

"Shit," Ichigo said as he turned towards the three to their left. "I'll get these three," he said as he reached his left hand up over his face and pulled it down, materializing his mask.

"Ichigo! You can't use that much energy!" Ishida exclaimed when he saw Ichigo hollowfy.

"Shut up and take care of those three," Ichigo replied as he indicated the ones approaching from in front. "We'll both take on the other four after that."

Ishida sighed and then said, "Wait just a moment, Ichigo."

Ichigo glanced over his shoulder at Ishida as the Quincy closed his eyes a moment and concentrated. "What…?" Ichigo asked. He suddenly felt as if something was wrapping itself around his body, but when he looked, he didn't see anything.

After a gasp, Ishida suddenly opened his eyes and stumbled just a little. "What did you do?" Ichigo asked as he reached out and stabilized the Quincy.

"I've made sure that they couldn't grab your spirit threads again. I didn't know if I could do it to someone else and it's creating a huge drain to maintain both yours and mine, but we should both be safe from that move of theirs now."

"You'll have to explain to me later. But thanks," Ichigo said as he gripped Ishida's shoulder and then turned to face the now very close Hell's Wills that were approaching them. Ishida nodded towards Ichigo and then ran off to confront the other three that were drawing quite near as well.

Inoue glanced back over her shoulder then and saw the boys taking on three Hell's Wills each. Fear for them gripped her stomach but she forced herself to look away and keep running. "Please, be careful, Kurosaki-kun… Ishida-kun."


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: Hello again! Nope, I didn't die. My profound apologies for taking so long with this. Life has been crazy busy these last few months and when it isn't, I'm just too worried about it getting crazy again to be able to think about this story. So, again, I'm sorry for the wait. I can't promise when the next chapter will be up after this, but I do promise that I will not abandon this story. It may take a while, but I will finish it, I swear.

Thanks for sticking with me, and enjoy!

Chapter 20

As Chad and Inoue raced across the rolling, cracked ground, they soon lost sight of their friends over the hilly terrain. Chad slowed as he sensed that they had put a fair amount of distance between the other two and, by extension, the Hell's Wills.

He slid down another steep slope and then came to a stop as Inoue slid down beside him. "We should wait here," he said as he carefully lowered Urahara off of his shoulder and to the ground.

Inoue bit her lip as she glanced back in the direction they had come from, but shook off her fear and then turned her attention back to Urahara. He was still unconscious and looked quite horrible after having taken a large portion of his own Kido spell.

She knelt down and called out her healing fairies and quickly set them to work on him. Chad stood there and watched a moment before he climbed back up the slope they had just descended and stood at the top, keeping a look out for Ishida and Ichigo.

After a while, he heard a groan of pain from Urahara and he turned around and looked down at the two of them. "Are you all right, Urahara-san?" Inoue asked him through her rejection field. He blinked and winced slightly at the pain in his chest before he was able to focus on her.

He sighed and then muttered, "I've been better, but thank you, Inoue-san." He closed his eyes again and lay still as she finished healing his wounds.

"Mm," she said and focused a bit more on her healing.

Chad glanced back over his shoulder towards his missing friends, but still didn't see anything. With a shake of his head he clambered down the slope again and sat down on the ground beside Inoue and Urahara.

After a little while longer, Inoue dismissed her fairies, declaring that she had healed all of his physical wounds. "Thank you, Inoue-san," he wearily told her but didn't move to sit up yet. "I think I'll be better if I can just rest a bit longer."

"This place is really taking it out of you, isn't it?" Chad asked him.

He nodded and then said, "I really should never have attempted even such a lower level Kido when I did," he told them. "I even had to use the full incantation, which I haven't had to do for that one in longer than I can remember."

"Is Kurosaki-kun going to be all right?" Inoue asked softly.

Urahara glanced at her a moment before he sighed and replied, "I don't know. He does have more raw energy to draw on than I do, but he's also using far more at a time with those powerful moves of his. But he's with Ishida-san and that should help."

"Why is Ishida so much more powerful here?" Chad asked suddenly.

Urahara didn't respond right away. After a space of silence, he reached his hand out to Chad to help him sit up. Chad grabbed his arm with one hand and put his other hand behind the shopkeeper's back and guided him up into a sitting position. After a few breaths in his new position, Urahara spoke again. "I believe…" he said carefully, "…That this, or something like this place, is where the Quincy may have originated from."

"I don't understand," Inoue said. "I thought the Quincy were spiritually aware humans."

Urahara nodded and then said, "Yes, that is all that we really know about them. But that doesn't explain how they are able to do what they do. It is a very strange talent to develop and so opposite from what the Shinigami do that there has been some speculation that they were a created race at the beginning."

"Created?" Chad asked.

"Yes," Urahara said as he reached out and picked up his cane that was lying on the ground beside him. He laid it across his legs as he continued speaking. "You are aware that it was an experimental accident that created the Bount, correct?" he asked.

Both of them nodded. "Well, the creation of the Quincy may have been something like that, but not quite so accidental. And, because this place seems to be so easy for Ishida-san to use his power and with much greater potential, I think that this is at least a similar environment to wherever that creation took place."

"So it's a little like when I went to Hueco Mundo…" Chad said.

Urahara nodded, "Yes, something like that. Your powers fully matured there because they are, at least in part, based on hollow energy. Since you were in the birthplace of your powers, they were able to fully awaken."

Chad nodded his understanding. But Inoue still seemed a little confused. "But, Urahara-san," she said. "If Ishida-kun is where his powers originated from…"

Urahara quickly cut her off, "I don't know for sure and any more speculation would not be wise right now, Inoue-san," he said as he gave her a significant look.

Chad looked between the two of them, curious what the look meant, but he simply shook his head and decided it wasn't important. He stood up again then and started to walk back towards the slope to take up his look out again.

Suddenly Ishida staggered to the top of the slope with Ichigo's arm slung over his shoulder, helping to support the exhausted Shinigami. Ishida tripped at the top and began to topple down the slope, bringing Ichigo with him. Chad ran up, catching both of them and helping them down the rest of the way without mishap.

"Ishida-kun! Kurosaki-kun!" Inoue exclaimed as she jumped to her feet and came over to them. Chad was already taking Ichigo's other arm and took his weight off of the just about as exhausted Quincy. Inoue came over and put an arm around Ishida. "What happened?" Inoue said as she looked both of them over.

Ichigo had transformed back from his Bankai state and had a slight trickle of blood coming out of the right side of his mouth as he held onto his ribs with his free arm. Ishida had a nasty gash across his chest, but it wasn't very deep or dangerous, just painful. Both of them looked as if they were ready to collapse.

"Later, Inoue-san," Ishida gasped to her. "We have to keep moving."

Ichigo nodded, "There are still four of them after us."

Ishida frowned, "I'm sorry, but it was too dangerous for us to keep fighting them after I could no longer maintain control of our spirit threads."

Urahara used his cane to help him clamber to his feet. "It's all right," he told them. "I think that these remaining ones are just meant to make sure that we don't dawdle."

"What do you mean, Urahara-san?" Inoue asked.

Ishida nodded though and said, "Yes, they didn't seem as intent on attacking us, just driving us on."

"In that case, we need to get moving again before they catch up," Urahara said as he turned and started to lead them on. Chad, helping Ichigo, followed next and Inoue and Ishida followed close behind them.

"But should we be going where we're obviously being herded?" she asked.

"We don't really have a choice, Inoue-san," Ishida said softly to her.

She bit her lip wondering what could have happened back there to make both of these prideful boys flee towards a potential trap.

XXX

Ichigo had quickly taken out the first of the creatures after he had launched his attack on them with his mask on now. But he was nearly floored after doing so from the massive amount of power that it had taken out of him.

He staggered a bit as he spun around to face the next one. Suddenly he was launched through the air as the Hell's Will's fist collided with his chest. He collapsed on the ground some distance away and coughed up a small spurt of blood. His ribs were on fire, but he ignored it as he used his sword to help him climb back on his feet. He eyed the remaining two in front of him through his mask and then gritted his teeth.

"All right, I need to take you two out now," he said with the distorted tones that accompanied his hollow form. He took a step back and brought his thin black blade up. "Getsuga Tensho!" he cried and released a massive wave of black and red energy that flew towards the two Hell's Will.

With a strange cry, both of them tried to bring up their arms to block the blast, but they were completely engulfed in the wave. When the view was clear again, Ichigo saw that he had completely obliterated them.

Suddenly his mask shattered as he pitched forward and fell flat on his face. Weakly, he turned his head to the side to see how Ishida was fairing with his three targets.

Two of them had already been taken out, but Ishida was clearly struggling with the third. Ichigo realized that his bow was missing and he was using a Seele Schneider in one hand and trying to combat the thing close up. "Shit," Ichigo muttered as he tried to will some strength into his limbs to get up.

He managed to get partway up before he shifted and sent a rush of pain through his injured ribs, causing him to gasp in pain and his arms to buckle. He fell onto his stomach again, unable to get up.

He grimaced as he watched the bone fingers of the Hell's Will rake across Ishida's chest as the Quincy attempted to hack off the arm with his blade. He managed to twist enough so that the injury wasn't deep, but it was bleeding pretty badly.

Ishida leapt back and then glanced over towards Ichigo. He saw that Ichigo had disposed of his opponents but was now lying on the ground. He heaved a sigh and then concentrated a moment, releasing his control over Ichigo's spirit threads.

Ichigo felt something shift around him and he realized that Ishida must have broken whatever hold he had been maintaining over his spirit threads. Ichigo thought this meant that Ishida must have lost his control over his own as well.

The Shinigami struggled to get back to his feet again, fearing that Ishida was about to need his help. But he was only able to make it to a kneel as he watched Ishida launch himself into the air, summoning his bow again. He brought his Seele Schneider to the bow and released it straight down, driving it through the Hell's Will's head, all the way into the ground. The creature seemed to freeze for a moment as Ishida touched down again beside it. Suddenly it burst into dust. Ishida walked over to where the thing had been and retrieved his Seele Schneider from the ground before turning around and walking back to Ichigo.

But another cry in the distance caught their attention. They both looked over and saw that the remaining four Hell's Wills were nearing. Ishida paused, staring at them for a moment before he quickly made up his mind. He switched to Hirenkyaku for just a moment to make it over to Ichigo.

"We can't take them on, Ichigo," he told the Shinigami as he reached down and wrapped his arm around him to help him stand.

"We can't just leave them to come after us," Ichigo tried to argue.

"And there's no way that either of us are going to be able to face them like this. I can't maintain my hold over the spirit threads any longer. If we were to take them on like this, they would easily catch us and eat us. Our best bet is to retreat with the others now."

Ichigo frowned but nodded. He hated to walk away from a fight like this, but he realized that, in his current condition, he wasn't going to be able to do much good against those creatures. He tried to pull away from Ishida to stand on his own. But the moment that he was just about to stand on his own, he started to pitch over.

Ishida reached out again, steadying him as best as he could given his own weakened state. "Take it easy, Shinigami," he told Ichigo and began to lead them over the cracked ground in the direction that the others were waiting for them.

"It doesn't look like those ones are in a great hurry," Ishida said with a nod towards the other Hell's Wills. They were still approaching, but not very quickly. "We should have time to get ahead of them at this rate."

XXX

The group moved as fast as they could across broken ground, up and down over the strangely rolling landscape. As the clambered up a particularly steep sloped, they paused and looked back. The Hell's Wills were not very far away at this point.

Urahara sighed and then turned and continued up the slope before the others did. When he finally crested the top he stopped and whistled at the sight in front of him. Everyone else turned their attention from the approaching beasts towards him.

"What is it, Urahara-san?" Inoue asked.

"I would assume it's where we're meant to go," Urahara said as he turned and looked down at them. "Hurry up then."

They all resumed their climb and were momentarily standing beside Urahara on the top of the hill. "What is this?" Ichigo muttered as he finally took his arm back from Chad and managed to stand on his own.

They were staring out over a vast stretch of brilliant green grass that began abruptly at the bottom of their current hill. It stretched on over a flat expanse until it ended at the base of a large, white, building. From the angle that they were looking at it, they could see two walls joining up at a point angled towards them. But it wasn't at a ninety degree angle that most buildings would have been.

"I think," Ishida said as he examined the angle and the two sides that he could see sloping away from them. "That this might be a pentagon shaped building." He released his hold on Inoue then and began to walk along the top of the hill to get a better look down one of the sides.

"You may be right, Ishida-san," Urahara said as he walked the opposite direction to look down the other side.

Inoue looked between the two of them and then turned around and saw that the Hell's Wills were very close now. "We should probably keep moving," she quickly said to them.

The two looked back and then nodded. "Whatever this is," Ishida said. "This is where those things are driving us. Maybe they won't get too close to that thing?"

"Who knows," Ichigo said as he took a step off the edge of the slope and started to make his way down the other side. "But I don't want to wait around here for those things to catch up with us just now."

Everyone seemed to agree as they all made their way down the hill to the grassy expanse below. They had crossed about halfway over the lawn when they glanced back and saw the Hell's Wills had made it to the top of that final rise. There, they paused and eyed the grass below them. They began to mill about along the edge of the dry ground, but not getting any closer to the grass.

"Looks like you were right, Ichigo," Urahara said. He glanced back at the building before them and then at Ichigo and Ishida. They were still both looking a bit exhausted, though Ichigo more so than Ishida. It seemed that Quincy was recovering his lost energy quicker than the Shinigami. But they were also both still injured.

"We should stop here a moment and let Inoue-san heal both of you," he told them.

"I don't like being so exposed," Ichigo muttered as the others nodded their agreement.

"I don't think that it really matters here," Urahara said. "It feels as if we've been under observation since the moment we arrived here. It's probably a good bet that Atsushi already knows exactly where we are and is just toying with us right now."

All of them looked at Urahara in surprise and wondered how he could announce something like that so calmly. "Seriously?" Ichigo asked.

Urahara nodded and looked at him. "Think about it, we apparently arrived here a fair distance from this structure, but it didn't take long for a group of Hell's Wills, no doubt taken from hell by Atsushi, to find us and force us here. I think that Atsushi was using them as a way to test how strong we really are and what type of a threat we might prove to him. He still is unsure about our little group, especially after we have managed to thwart his plans in the real world a few times now."

"Then why not just try and take us out now rather than lead us right to him?" Chad asked.

Urahara glanced over at Ishida but then quickly said, "I'm not sure. He probably thinks of this as all some kind of game."

Ishida didn't miss the glance in his direction, but he didn't comment on it either. Inoue was walking over to Ichigo now and had called out her healing field over his chest. He soon began to look as if he was having less trouble breathing and in less pain.

As soon as she had finished with him, she turned to Ishida and performed the same procedure.

As she worked, Ichigo came over to them. He reached inside his uniform and pulled something out. "Here," he said as he handed a small metal rod to Ishida. "I picked this up after you shot off that thing's arm that had my spirit threads."

Ishida reached out and took the Seele Schneider from Ichigo's hand. "Thank you, Ichigo," he said and then slipped it back on its place on his belt. "I'm glad to have them all again."

Ichigo nodded and then wandered away again.

After a few more minutes Ishida said, "Thank you, Inoue-san," when she finished and her fairies popped back into her hair pins. She smiled at him and then bobbed her head before turning around.

"So what now?" she asked.

"We go see if the Lord is home," Urahara said with a smile as he turned and started walking towards the structure.

Ichigo shook his head at Urahara's levity but said, "Yeah, we came here to find him after all."

Urahara paused and looked back at the others as first Ichigo began walking towards the building and then Chad and Inoue followed suite. Ishida hung back as the others walked past Urahara. He crossed his arms and stared at Urahara a moment.

"Are you coming, Ishida-san?" Urahara asked him.

Ishida uncrossed his arms and came up to stand beside the shopkeeper. "Perhaps you would like to fill me in on what is going on here?" Ishida said to him.

"To what are you referring, Ishida-san?" Urahara asked as he began to walk again, following behind the others. But he was walking slowly so as not to catch up to them.

Ishida fell into step beside him and said, "You know something about why my powers have been behaving differently here and I think you also at least suspect that I have something to do with Atsushi's decision to not kill us right away."

Urahara walked in silence for a little while before he asked, "Are you sure you want to hear my suspicions before I know for sure what is going on, Ishida-san?"

Ishida nodded, "I think that I deserve to at least have some idea of what is going on here."

"Very well," Urahara said. He glanced up and saw that the others probably couldn't hear what he was about to tell Ishida. "Yes, I suspect that it is for your benefit that Atsushi has made a concentrated effort not to kill us yet. Though he has obviously come fairly close to doing so already."

"And why is that?" Ishida prompted.

After another brief pause, Urahara said, "I suspect that Atsushi may be quite interested in you, Ishida-san, because he was responsible for the creation of the Quincy."

Ishida stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Urahara wide eyed. The shopkeeper paused and glanced back at the Quincy. "He what?" Ishida muttered, unable to completely wrap his mind around what Urahara had just told him.

Urahara walked back the two steps to Ishida and said softly, "I'll explain what I know and guess, Ishida-san, but we should keep moving please."

Ishida blinked and then numbly began to walk again. "I didn't want to tell you this," Urahara said as he also resumed walking, "for this very reason." He glanced up at Ishida and saw that the young man was trying to get his sudden emotional response under control again.

"I… I'm sorry, Urahara-san," he said. "It's just quite hard to believe that your statement could be true."

"Well, I don't have any proof, but it is a very strong hunch. I am curious, what does your own mythos say about the creation of the Quincy?"

"Not much," Ishida said with a slight frown. "Just that there was a group that noticed that they had certain abilities to sense and destroy hollows so they banded together and made sure to keep these abilities within one clan. They trained then and sought out new ways to use their particular talents to fight against the hollows more effectively."

Urahara nodded, "Yes, that is the extent of the Shinigami knowledge of your clan as well. But it has been long suspected that there may have been someone behind the development of the first Quincy."

Ishida nodded, "I admit, it would make sense. Especially after hearing how the Bount were not naturally occurring either. But how can you believe that Atsushi is the one that was responsible?"

"Well," Urahara explained. "First there has been how much he has always been interested in you as soon as he heard you were a Quincy. Also, he seems to favor influences of the human world towards the Germanic slant. I do believe that there are a fair number of German termed items and techniques from your training as a Quincy?"

Ishida nodded, "That's why I was able to interpret that German earlier and knew about Goethe and the others. My grandfather made me study the language and some of the history."

With a nod, Urahara continued, "Yes, I believe that your clan was originally from that area and has since migrated across the globe. But that is all circumstantial evidence. The first time that I had some hard evidence was when you were the only one that could cross those lines that Goethe set up in the hospital."

Ishida was silent a moment and then said slowly, "Yes, that does seem to indicate that there is some connection between my powers and Atsushi. And he did know that because he said I would have been the only one that could have stopped him."

Urahara nodded, "Yes, and whatever that was also gave you a power boost, did it not? Much in the same way that you have gotten one since your arrival here."

Ishida had to nod again. "Now that you mention it, the feeling is quite similar." He looked at Urahara then and asked, "So what does this mean? He obviously is interested in me so how can we use this to our advantage?"

"I think," Urahara said slowly. "That we already are. I think that he hasn't yet gone all out on us because he is not testing us, but testing you. He wants to know how his creation has faired since he set the Quincy loose on the world and left them to their own devices. It has been many, many centuries since that time, after all."

"But that means that, even if he is responsible for my powers, he can't possibly know everything that I am capable of," Ishida said thoughtfully.

"Exactly. And I suggest trying to keep it that way as long at you can, Ishida-san. Don't use everything at your disposal unless you absolutely have to."

Ishida walked in silence again and noticed that they were nearly to the building now. It towered over them, casting the lawn they were now in shadow from the dim light of the sunrise behind it. The others had already reached the point where the two walls connected and now they could see that there was an entrance set into this point.

The other three were paused at this entrance and now glanced back to see that Ishida and Urahara had fallen behind. "Thank you, Urahara-san," Ishida said softly. "I am glad that you have told me all of this." He then sped up and quickly joined the others.

Ichigo eyed Ishida and Urahara as they rejoined the group, but didn't say anything. "Ok, so we're here. Now what?" he asked as he turned and looked at the large door in front of them. He had already tried to push it open, but to no avail.

Ishida glanced back at Urahara and then walked forward. He placed his hand against the cool, white stone door. He saw that there were white engravings on it of pentagons and crosses that could only really be seen from close up. This seemed like even further evidence of the connection between the Quincy and this person. Apparently the form had been engraved into the Quincy subconscious before Atsushi placed them in the human world.

As his hand connected with the door, he felt a slight tingle. He was compelled to push against the door and a soft click sound was heard before it slowly swung open.

"How'd you do that?" Ichigo asked.

Ishida shrugged, "I'm not sure," he replied before walking boldly through the door.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Ichigo snapped as he rushed in behind his friend. He nearly collided with Ishida's back once inside. The Quincy had only walked a few steps inside before pausing and looking around.

The interior was cool and dimly lit. There was no obvious source of illumination but there seemed to be a slight vaguely bluish glow emanating from the walls themselves. The space at the entrance had a high vaulted expanse above their heads, creating interesting echoes of their footsteps. But the area wasn't very large before branching off into three different corridors. One was directly across from entrance that appeared to run at an upward slope. The two to either side were flat and appeared to run along at the same odd angle as the walls outside.

"What is it with this guy and pentagons?" Ichigo asked as he looked around. Each of the passageways had a symbol etched into the stone above it of a pentagon with a star inside.

Ishida glanced over his shoulder at Ichigo but didn't say anything. He took a few more steps inside so that the others could also enter.

Inoue stepped in and then wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. "Burr, it sure is cold in here," she said.

Ishida looked back at her. He knew that it was significantly cooler inside the structure than it had been outside, but for some reason he felt pleasantly warm. At a quick glance to the others, they also appeared slightly chilled, though since they had more layers on, weren't as strongly affected as Inoue.

The Quincy was just wondering if he ought to offer her his spare mantel when suddenly Urahara pulled his cloak off in a flourish and settled it around her shoulders. She gave a slight gasp and then looked at him saying, "Oh, thank you Urahara-san. But I don't need…"

He shook his head at her saying, "I will be fine. It is rather cold in here and you are the least covered of us." He walked away then and peered into the dimness of the passageway to the right. "Now," he said, staring down the hall. "Which way are we to go?"

Ishida turned and went over to stare up the slopped hall that was directly across from the entrance. Everyone was silent for a brief moment before Urahara's voice suddenly spoke again, grabbing Ishida's attention. "What do you think, Ishida-san?" he asked.

Ishida turned and looked at Urahara and found that his elder was staring at him and he felt as if the man had been doing so for a while now. Looking around, he saw that all of them now had their attention directed at him.

"Why are you all looking at me?" he asked.

"Well," Ichigo said slowly as he stared to rub the back of his neck. "You do seem to be the most comfortable with this place and you are usually the one with the plans."

Ishida turned his head and said, "Che, I don't have any more idea about this place than any of you."

"Well in that case," Urahara said. "Maybe it would be best if we were to split up and each take a path.

"Are you sure that's a good idea, Urahara-san?" Inoue asked. "If this really is where Atsushi-san is hiding, then there's no telling what we might run into."

Ichigo sighed and said, "Yeah, but splitting up will help us to locate him faster. I don't like it very much either, Inoue, but Urahara does have a point."

"Thank you, Ichigo," Urahara said to him with a smile. "Now, how should you divide?"

"'You?'" Ichigo asked. "Don't you mean 'we'? You can't expect us to let you go by yourself."

Urahara sighed and said, "That had been the idea."

Ishida shook his head as he said, "No. That may have been the most logical path before. But now you are probably the most vulnerable out of our group."

Urahara frowned but nodded, "You may be right, Ishida-san."

"Urahara and I will take the left branch," Ichigo announced as he walked over to stand beside Urahara.

"Again," Ishida spoke up. "Perhaps not the best division. You are also not at your best here, Ichigo."

Ichigo turned and scowled at him. "Then what do you suggest, Uryuu?"

He thought a moment as he cast a glance over his shoulder towards the slopped path. "I think that, given our current states, no one should be going on alone. We can leave this center path for last and split up to take the two side paths for now."

"That will take longer," Chad spoke up.

Ishida nodded, "But none of us should be out alone right now either. If my guess is correct, the two sides probably will follow all along the perimeter of the building. We can each go one way and meet up again. If there's another upward passage there, then we can all try that way, other wise we can come back here and try this one. That will at least give us an idea of what this place is like if nothing else and no one will be caught out by themselves."

Everyone exchanged a glance before Urahara nodded and said, "All right. Ichigo, Sado, come with me down the left passage. Inoue and Ishida, take the right."

They all nodded and quickly divided by Urahara's suggestion near their designated passageways. As Ishida was walking past Urahara he paused and took a hold of the ex-captain's hand as if to shake it. "I think you might be able to find these usefully, Urahara-san," he said softly to the man and then released his hand and continued to the right.

Urahara didn't look at what the Quincy had just placed in his hand, but he felt three small metal tubes pressed into his palm. He nodded to himself as he pocketed them without anyone else noticing. He had a pretty good idea what it was that the Quincy had just handed him and he was already thinking of ways that he could put such items to his own use.

"Urahara-san," Inoue said. "Do you want your cloak back?"

She started to take it off to hand back but he shook his head and raised a hand. "No, Inoue-san. You keep it for now. You can return it when we all meet up again."

She nodded once and wrapped it a little tighter around her shoulders. "I promise," she told him.

"Meet you guys on the other side," Ichigo said and then turned with a backward wave and headed down the passage. Chad and then Urahara turned and followed after him while Ishida and Inoue stood and watched them until they disappeared.

When they could no longer be seen down the dim pathway, Inoue turned to Ishida and said, "Should we get going now, Ishida-kun?"

He glanced off to the side first at the third passage that none of them had taken and then nodded, "Yes, Inoue-san. Let's go." He turned and then led them down the other side.

As the two groups faded into the darkness, another lone figure appeared coming down the third passage. He walked down the slope until he came to the crossroads. He glanced first down the left side and then the right before he said, "So, he's going to try and avoid me? That is not going to be so easy in here."

Two white orbs blinked in the dimness before he turned and walked back up the slopped passageway and faded back into the darkness.


	21. Chapter 21

_A/N: Hello again! Believe it or not, I'm not dead! I'm so sorry for my incredibly long absence. Between work and a gigantic case of writer's block, I have neglected this story far too long. _

_I would also like to note that I am finally caught up with cannon and now feel bad how very, very far off my story has gone. But, since I'm not very much liking what is currently happening, I'm going to stick with my AU. _

[Thanks to Reedreadred's suggestion, I'm updating this chapter to have a recap on what has happened since it's been such a long time since I posted...]

Previously on Unshaken:

An earthquake hits and seemingly knocks out travel between the dimentions. While cut off from Soul Society, strange difficulties strike Ishida, Inoue, and Chad. We find out that they have been tested by Soul Society to determine their loyalty to Ichigo. It turns out that the second son of the Spirit King, Atusushi, has gone rouge and is attempting to take over all of the dimensions. Since those of Soul Society are not allowed to interfere with the Spirit King and his family, Ichigo and friends have been selected to deal with the problem. Urahara, due to still being in exile, is also added to our adventuring group. The five have gone to Atsushi's dimension and have just entered his base while Rukia, Yoruichi, and Matsumoto have stayed behind in the real world in case an attack comes while the others are away.

And now...

Chapter 21

Rukia sat on the edge of the shop's porch as the sun began to rise in the distance. It was going to be another beautiful day but she couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't going to be a pleasant one.

"Rukia," Yoruichi's voice said softly behind her.

Rukia glanced over her shoulder and saw the other woman standing there, staring out at the lightening sky as well.

"You're up early today," she finished.

Rukia sighed and turned back to looking at the sky. "I didn't sleep well last night," she admitted.

"No, neither did I," Yoruichi also admitted as she came and sat beside Rukia on the porch.

They sat that way in silence as the dawn slowly crawled on. It was nearly full light before Rukia spoke again. "I told Ichigo to bring him back."

Yoruichi nodded, "He promise?"

Rukia nodded.

"Then he will. Ichigo doesn't know how to break a promise."

They were silent for a moment longer before Rukia stood up and said, "I hate this. I'm the reason that Ichigo has to deal with this sort of thing. I should at least be there with him."

"You know that it's hardly your fault, Rukia," Yoruichi told her. "There was little choice at the time and we know now that there was far more going on that night than what you knew. Besides, Ichigo certainly doesn't blame you. In fact, didn't he thank you for what you did?"

Rukia looked down and then turned around to reenter the shop. She paused at the door and said softly, "I don't think he knows any better."

Yoruichi also sighed and said to herself, "No, I suppose they don't."

XXX

Isane knocked gently on Captain Unohana's door. "Captain," she called softly.

"Yes, Isane, you may come in," the Captain responded.

Isane cracked the door open and peeked inside first. Unohana was sitting at her desk studying something in front of her. Isane slipped inside and closed the door behind her. "Captain," she said.

Unohana looked up at her.

"Reports of some mysterious deaths in Rukogai have come in. It seems that there were many that died in their sleep last night. They are requesting that we send someone to help investigate."

Unohana looked thoughtful a moment before she nodded and stood up. "With coming so soon after the appearance of that pillar on the hill I can't help but wonder if it may be connected. We should look into this ourselves, Isane."

Isane was a little surprised by this. "But Captain, shouldn't you stay here?"

Unohana shook her head, "No. I have done all that I can for Vice-Captain Abarai. It is up to him at this point if he wakes. This new development, however, could be an indication of more to come. I should be down there to determine how those souls died."

Isane nodded and fell in step behind her Captain as Unohana led them out and down to the town. The fourth division Captain moved quickly, but she never seemed to be in a hurry, Isane mused as they headed for the town. She was quite proud to be the Vice-Captain under such a powerful individual, but Captain Unohana often would both scare and confuse her.

Most Captains would never bother to leave Seireitei to investigate something like this themselves. But Isane knew from experience that Captain Unohana was not like most other Captains. There was something mysterious about the much older woman that Isane didn't think that she would ever be able to understand.

As the Vice-Captain mused over this, her Captain couldn't help but recall that Captain's meeting they had just after the appearance of that pillar. If these incidents of strange deaths in the town were connected with what was happening, then things may be progressing faster than expected.

XXX

_It was no surprise that there was an emergency Captain's meeting called immediately following the end of that second quake. Captain Unohana was already headed in that direction before the orders had been delivered to her via Hell Butterfly. _

_She had expected to be the first to arrive but was slightly surprised to see that Sixth Division Captain, Kuchiki Byakuya, was already present and appeared to just be moving away from a private discussion with the Captain-Commander to his assigned position in the room._

_Unohana nodded to him as she took her place beside him. "Captain Byakuya," she greeted._

_He simply nodded in reply._

_They both stood in their places, silently waiting as the other Captain's began enter. "Captain Unohana," Captain Ukitake greeted, somewhat surprised, when he arrived. "I am surprised to see you here so quickly. There must have been many injuries from this last quake."_

_Unohana shook her head and replied, "There were not near as many injuries this time as before. The magnitude of the quake was not as great and, after so many buildings collapsed the last time, there were less inside collapsible buildings. Isane is more than capable of handling what there is to treat."_

_Ukitake nodded and replied, "Well, it's good to hear that there were fewer injuries. But I fear what it is that would be causing these disasters."_

_By now, all of the Captains but Zaraki Kenpachi had arrived. This left only eight out of the normal twelve Captains that there should have been in the two lines. Unohana shook her head at that thought. It was time that they found three new Captains for the ones that had betrayed them over a year ago but ones with enough strength and power to be a Captain were few and far between and it had been more than a hundred years since so many Captains had to be replaced at once._

_Unohana was brought out of her musing with the thunderous clang of the Captain-Commander rapping his cane against the floor, bringing their meeting to order. _

"_Where is Kenpachi?" Captain Kyoraku asked._

"_We cannot wait for him," Yamamoto said. "I have called you here to discuss the happenings that have been causing the quakes that have struck Seireitei," he informed them. _

_The Captains were all silent as they cast glances from one to another to see if any of the others may already know something. Unohana noticed that Byakuya was the only one that was not glancing around. But that was not exactly out of character for him so it didn't mean much._

"_I have been in contact with the higher kingdom," Yamamoto announced, much to everyone's surprise._

"_The Spirit King?!" Komamura exclaimed._

_The tension in the room shot up as Unohana glanced around the room. News of contact from the Spirit King was never a good thing. If something was happening even above their heads dire events may about to befall them._

"_Not directly," The Captain Commander replied to Komamura's question. "But I have been informed that our problems here and in the world of the living are a result of one of their own."_

_A few gasps and a slight murmuring spread through the ranks of Captains._

"_One of their own?" Kyoraku said softly, just above the others. "That doesn't sound good."_

_Yamamoto didn't show any reaction to the question and comment as he stood there, waiting for the Captains to settle again. "As you know," he picked up where he had left off. "Those of Soul Society are forbidden to interfere with the workings of the higher kingdom. That is why I received the request to find alternative means of intervention."_

"_Alternative means…" Ukitake said. "I see now…" he said with a shake of his head. "Kurosaki and the other humans… That's what that message meant."_

_There was another surprised gasp and shifting from the Captains as the commander glanced towards Ukitake. "That is correct," he confirmed. "There is nothing forbidding humans from interfering in such affairs. Their affiliation with us has never been something official."_

"_May I ask what the rest of us have missed?" Unohana asked quietly. But she made sure that no one in the room was able to miss her displeasure at being left out of the loop. There was something serious going on that was harming those that were under her protection and she had been denied information that may have helped. _

_The commander gave a slight nod towards Ukitake, indicating the thirteenth Captain could fill the others in on his part of this. "I sent a message to Urahara Kisuke directly after the first quake at the request of the Captain-Commander," he informed them. "It was informing him that those of Kurosaki's human friends with powers were going to be tested and that Urahara should not interfere but take note of how they fared." _

"_Tested?" Unohana asked with a raise of an eyebrow._

"_Those of the higher kingdom asked for recommendations of non-members of Soul Society that could aid them," Yamamoto said. "When I informed them of the humans, they wanted some kind of proof that they were both powerful enough and trust worthy enough to aid them."_

"_And what kinds of tests were they put through?" Kyoraku asked with a dark edge to his voice._

"_Nothing too serious if you ask me," Kurotsuchi muttered with a sigh._

_Accusing eyes were turning towards the Twelfth division Captain but were drawn back by the Captain-Commander._

"_It does not matter," Yamamoto said with a shake of his head. "All have passed. Including Urahara Kisuke."_

_There was an even more noticeable shifting of surprise among the group from this announcement. "Urahara?" Toshiro exclaimed. "How can he act against the higher kingdom?"_

_It was Soi Fon that responded. "That man has not been a member of Soul Society for over one hundred years."_

_Toshiro glanced at her and then nodded, "I see," he said softly. "But could the same not be said for Shihoin Yoruichi? Surely it would be nice to have her aid on something like this as well."_

"_She was never actually banished as Urahara was," Ukitake informed him. "Though she left her post as Captain, she has never been removed from our ranks in entirety."_

"_Former Captain Shihoin has been working under my direction throughout this ordeal," the commander informed them. "As such, she is ineligible to aid those of the higher kingdom."_

_There was another moment of silence as all of this information was taken in. "Perhaps," Captain Kuchiki said into the silence. "It would be of interest to tell whom our foe is in this matter."_

_All eyes, including Yamamoto's shifted to the sixth division captain. _

"_Very well…" the commander said. "The one behind the current crisis is Atsushi… second son of the Spirit King…"_

XXX

Unohana shook these thoughts from her head. It was useless information in the long run. As soon as they were told the identity of their attacker, it became irrelevant. No one in Soul Society could raise a hand to this man, even if he had gone rouge. Atsushi was a member of the royal family. He was second in line to inherit the position of Spirit King should something happen to his elder brother.

Beyond that, there was little to nothing known about what it was that those of the royal family were capable of. It was entirely possibly that, not only were none of Soul Society allowed to try and stop him, but they may not even be capable of it.

The only option that was left to them was to seek outside help. It did make her feel a little better knowing that Urahara was able to aid them in this case. Never before was she so glad that, even after his aid in the affair against Aizen, was it suggested to rescind Urahara's exile. It had surprised the fourth Captain that he wasn't suggested as a possible replacement for the empty Captain slots, but now it seemed that this was for the best.

It was further discussed in the Captains' meeting that Atsushi was probably attempting to conquer all of the other worlds in preparation for going after the Spirit King himself. No one had any idea what form this attempt would come in but Unohana had a suspicion that he would want to at least lessen the numbers of those he had to fight against before an all out assault. The sheer number of foes that he would be facing between all of the known worlds was incredible.

That is why she was fairly certain that these unexplained deaths were probably linked to the appearance of that strange pillar on the top of the hill. It was beginning in the city and not in Seireitei itself. That probably meant that these were just initial experiments and there was going to be more to come in the near future.

"Captain?" Isane asked softly as the pair crossed through the Seireitei gates.

Unohana paused and glanced back at Isane. The Vice-Captain paused as well and then proceeded to ask, "The Captains all seem worried about something. Is there something that we, as your Vice-Captains, should be preparing for?"

Unohana regarded Isane from the corner of her eye a moment before she blinked and then turned forward again. She spoke softly as she once again began to walk. "There is nothing that the Captains or their Vice-Captains are going to be able to do in this case, Isane, so there is no need to burden you with the details. All that you need to know is that we are most likely going to be burdened with many more of these deaths before the situation can be resolved."

"But, something is being done?" Isane asked, rather stunned to hear this announcement from her Captain.

Unohana bowed her head slightly and said, "Yes, measures are being taken. All we can do now is put our trust in those selected to take care of this and hope for the best."

Isane was silent for a while longer before she asked, "Can we trust those selected?"

Unohana glanced back out of the corner of her eye again before looking straight forward and saying, "Yes. Those selected are unshakable. They will not fail if there is even a glimmer of possibility. We can be sure that, if there is a way to succeed, that group will find a way."

XXX

"Atsushi-sama," Kuna said as she knelt before her lord. "You summoned me?"

"Ah, Kuna," Atsushi said as he turned around from the pedestal he had been standing in front of. "Thank you for coming."

"I live to serve," she told him, keeping her eyes averted to the ground.

"Yes, you do," he told her with a smile as he reached down and lifted her chin up to look at him. "That is the reason I created you, after all, my daughter."

She simply blinked at him as she looked up at his grinning face.

"Kuna, you're to return to the land of the living and finish off the pathetic foes that are there, understand?"

She winced slightly as he began to squeeze her chin between his fingers. "Yes, Atsushi-sama," she told him.

"I was disappointed in your performance the last time. I thought that I had taught you better than to be brought so low by such trash?"

"I… I apologize…" she gasped as he increased his pressure on her chin while lifting her up off of the floor.

His grin turned cold and wicked as he lifted her up until her feet were suspended from the ground. "You will not fail me again, my princess," he said coldly. "Otherwise, I will end your existence myself." With that, he tossed her across the room to slam into the far wall. She struck with enough force to nearly knock her unconscious as she slid down the wall to land on the floor in a heap.

She coughed up a tiny puddle of blood onto the floor as she struggled to get herself back up. "I understand, father," she said between her breaths.

"Good," Atsushi said as he turned from her and returned to the pedestal. "Now, take the others and get back over to the other world. We need to make sure that there is no one left to interrupt me as I subjugate the living world to my will."

He turned halfway to look at Kuna from the corner of his eye. "Hell and Hueco Mundo are mine already. All I must do is bring the living world to heel and then I can focus on Soul Society."

"Atsushi-sama," Kuna said hesitantly. "I thought that those of Soul Society couldn't move against you? Why are you saving such easy prey for last?"

He eyed her a moment before he laughed. "Oh, my dear, you don't seem to understand. It's not that I am avoiding the fight…" he sobered and then turned away as his voice dropped to a deadly whisper. "I just want to make them watch as all that they are meant to protect is ripped from their fingers."

Kuna felt a shudder through her spine at her father's words. She didn't know why, but for some reason she was glad that she was not one that had to attack Soul Society. Atsushi had told her before that, once the other worlds were brought to his control, no one but he and his five chosen would be needed to finish off the Shinigami. All she had to do was complete this task in the living world and she wouldn't have to fight anymore.

With a sigh she turned and limped out of the room to find the others and head back the living world. She had a score to settle with three women over there that she could not leave unfinished.

As she left, Atsushi turned his attention back to what he had been looking at on the pedestal. There was a large, shallow basin of water perched on the pedestal and he was staring intently at. "Maybe I can replace my inept daughter with a son soon enough," he said to himself as the image of Ishida walking down a hallway with Inoue flickered on the surface of the water.

_A/N: Ok, so it was short and probably not covering anything of what you were waiting so very long for. But I'm easing myself back into things. But I have finally outline the rest of the story and at least know where I am going from here on out. It will be a total of 35 chapters so we're past the halfway point at least. I hope to be able to keep up again now with regular updates _

_Please read and review and thanks for those that have stuck with me through my sabbatical! _


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: Hello again! Thank you for the reviews for the last chapter. A special thank you to Serotiny being both the 50th reviewer and pointing out that I should probably change my rating. This story hasn't gotten quite as bloody and violent as I had thought it would and I don't see that changing as we go.

So, I had hoped to return to a weekly update, but I think that every other week is going to be the best that I can do right now. Thank you again to those who reviewed the last chapter. It's good to see that not everyone has given up on me

I think that this chapter could probably use a little more recap as to what went on in the first 20 chapters to get into this one.

_Previously on Unshaken…_

_Once getting into Atsushi's dimension, the group is attacked by some strangely modified Hells Wills. Urahara is badly injured and everyone is forced to retreat but it seems that the Hell's Wills are simply herding them to Atsushi's lair._

_Chapter 20 leaves off with Ichigo, Ishida, Inoue, Chad, and Urahara just entering Atsushi's lair. They were faced with three hallways, one to the right, one to the left and one straight ahead. They decide to split up two ways. Ishida and Inoue take the right path while the others take the left._

That's where we are now…

Almost… P.S. A/N: I reposted this chapter on 3/7/13 with a change of Goethe's power explanation at the end and translations for what he is saying. I made a typo and realized I hadn't thought through what his power was before thanks to Aurora Marija for pointing it out as well as the fact I had forgotten to put the translation in.

Ok, now we can start!

Chapter 22

As they walked down the eerily blue lit hallway, Chad glanced over at Ichigo. It was true that the substitutes Shinigami always had some form of a frown or scowl on his face, but right now it seemed even deeper than normal. "Ichigo, is there something wrong?" he asked after a little while of observing him.

Ichigo glanced over at Chad and sighed. He could feel Urahara also looking at him from the corner of his eye, even if the older man was pretending to not pay attention. "I just don't like splitting up," Ichigo muttered. "This whole thing feels like a trap."

"That's because it is, Kurosaki-san," Urahara said with a smile. Both of the teens looked at him in surprise at how lightly he said this. He looked at them and said, "We all know that we were led here and this place is set up in a manner that encourages us to split up. But there really isn't a choice in the matter. We came to challenge prince Atsushi and those that would follow him. The only way to do that is to find those people and the fastest way to find them is to play into whatever they have planned."

"But shouldn't we be trying avoid playing into their hand?!" Ichigo exclaimed.

Urahara sighed and returned to looking straight ahead as he spoke. "That option was taken from us long ago. If Atsushi wasn't playing with us, we would already be dead. Hopefully, now that we have been able to get our bearings here, we might stand a chance against him when he finally gets serious."

Ichigo's frown deepened even further. He had to admit that he wasn't sure if all those Hells Wills back there had attacked them if they would have survived this far. He and Ishida had just barely managed to take out the ones that they had before being forced to retreat. And, presumably, whatever else Atsushi had in store from them next would be at a higher level than those Hells Wills.

Ichigo glanced over at Urahara again and regarded the ex-Shinigami. He could tell that he was nowhere near his full strength yet. In fact, he seemed to be leaning on his cane as he walked. In all the time Ichigo had known him, he had never actually seen the shop owner use the cane in the manner that a cane is meant for. Add to that the reminder of how close they came to losing him to the Hells Will with the damage that was done to the front of his shirt. It was all the more obvious right now since he didn't have his customary cloak on to help hide the damage since he had loaned it to Inoue. Yes, it was true that Inoue had healed the wound that he had been forced to inflict on himself to escape the Hells Will, but the fact that someone at his level had been forced to resort to something like that was very worrisome.

_Ruika was right to worry about him,_ Ichigo thought as he recalled the conversation with her just before they had left.

XXX

_Rukia came up behind Ichigo then and grabbed his hand, pulling him just a little bit back from the others. "Ichigo," she said to him softly._

_He paused and looked down at her. "What is it, Rukia?"_

_"I just want you to promise me that you're going to come back."_

_He stared at her a moment wondering where such a level of concern was coming from. "I… I promise, Rukia."_

_She nodded and then said, "And if you could, make sure that you keep your eye on the others as well." She glanced towards Urahara. "Especially that one."_

_Ichigo followed her gaze and was startled at who she was looking at. "Urahara?" he asked. "Of all of us, I can't understand why you would be worried about him."_

_Rukia shrugged. "I just promised someone to tell you to keep an eye on him. Also, he has been doing an awful lot lately and he may be getting closer to his limit than he realizes."_

XX

Ichigo tried to shake the memory aside for the moment but he couldn't help but wonder, _Did she know?_ It had seemed like such a strange request for her to put so much worry on Urahara. He never received the impression that the two were close, even if they were forced to work together. And, if it wasn't for this drain on their spirit energy, Urahara would be the best at taking care of himself here. He was a former captain, after all.

But none of that mattered right now. He had a promise to fulfill to Rukia which meant he had to keep an eye on all of them, but being split up like this made that duty rather difficult. At least he was able to watch over Urahara the way they were. Inoue was another concern of his, but Ishida was seemingly in his element here so he felt he could trust the girl's care to the Quincy for the moment at least...

XXX

"Inoue-san!"Ishida's voice cried from the other side of the solid white wall.

They had been walking along their path for some ways now without incident until they had come to an identical upward sloping hallway from theirs that they had avoided at the entrance. They had paused there for a moment as Ishida wondered what to do. In curiosity, Inoue started to wander up the hallway just a little. Ishida's warning had come a second too late as she crossed the threshold and a wall slid shut behind her.

"I'm all right, Ishida-kun," she called back. She had turned around and faced up the sloped hallway, leaning her back up against the wall that she could now hear Ishida desperately beating his fist against. "Please, Ishida-kun. Don't hurt yourself. I'm fine."

"Inoue-san, is there any way to open it from your side?" he called to her. Inoue glanced up over her head at the wall that had descended behind her. She knew perfectly well that there was nothing that she was going to do to get that door open. From where she stood, it didn't even look like a door but rather a solid wall.

She shook her head even though he clearly couldn't see her and said, "No. It's solid on this side too," she replied. She knew that she should be more concerned about herself in this situation, but she could only feel worried about Ishida being by himself and what he might do to try and get to her.

There was a long pause from the other side before Ishida's voice spoke again. Inoue had to strain to hear him now that he was no longer shouting. "Inoue-san, stay there. I'm going to back track to the other middle passage back at the entrance. I'm hoping that they will link up in the center. I'll come to you."

Inoue sighed to herself. _He still doesn't trust me to take care of myself,_ she thought to herself. "I'll be fine, Ishida-kun," she replied to him. "Please, take care of yourself. I'm going to follow this path and see where it leads."

"No! Inoue-san, stay there. I'll meet you; just don't go off by yourself."

"I'm going, Ishida-kun," she said to him as she pushed away from the wall and clenched her fists in determination.

"Please, don't get into too much trouble without me, Ishida-kun. We'll meet up again soon." With that she took a step up the slope and away from the wall that blocked her off from Ishida.

"Inoue-san…Inoue-san!" Ishida's voice called to her. But she didn't respond. She was set on this path and she was going to make sure that she took care of herself. She heard him call to her a few more times, but his already muffled voice was soon no longer audible as she continued to walk away from the wall.

_He has enough to worry about on his own, _she thought to herself as she continued to walk up the slope of the hallway. _I can cover more ground this way. If I just wait there, it will slow all of us down._

While she walked, she couldn't help but think back to their conversation just before they had become separated...

XXX

_Inoue glanced up at Ishida as she walked briskly down the hallway beside him. They had been walking in silence now for a while and she thought that he might be speeding up as they went. He looked as he always did, calm and collected. But she sensed, more than saw, that there was something that was concerning him. _

"_Ishida-kun, is everything all right?" she asked him. _

_He looked at her a moment and blinked before returning his attention to the path in front of them before saying, "I'm fine, Inoue-san, though this whole situation does have me concerned. It feels more and more like some kind of trap the further we go." _

_Inoue was slightly surprised at his honesty. She had expected him to say nothing more than that he was fine. She nodded slightly and said, "Yes, it does feel that way, but we have been left with little choice in how to proceed." _

_Ishida frowned and nodded, "So it would seem." _

_But Inoue had a feeling that there was something else that Ishida wasn't saying and she also had a feeling of what that something was. She had caught on to what Urahara had been suggesting before when he said that this place is where the Quincy originated from. She also knew that Ishida and Urahara had shared a private conversation on their way here. _

"_You're worried about Atsushi and what he has planned for you, aren't you, Ishida-kun?"she suddenly asked bluntly. _

_Ishida came to a sudden stop and looked down at her. She was surprised at the harshness in his gaze. "What did Urahara say to you?" he asked. _

"_N…nothing," she stammered, not sure where his sudden callous tone was coming from. "He mentioned that he thought this may be where the Quincy originated from because of how your powers seem to be stronger here. I… I suppose I sort of guessed at what that meant…" she trailed off as Ishida's gaze softened and turned to something else that she couldn't identify. _

"_I'm sorry, Inoue-san. I guess I shouldn't be angry that he told you or anyone else. It is information that we all deserve to know, not just me." _

"_But what does it mean?" Inoue asked him. "Are you saying that Urahara-san believes that Atsushi…" but she wasn't sure if she should actually say it. _

_She didn't have to. "…that he is the creator of the Quincy?" Ishida said as he looked away. "Yes, that is what he believes. And I believe that he may be correct." _

_They stood there, silent, for a while before Inoue asked, "So what does that mean for you, Ishida-kun?" _

_He sighed and then turned and started walking briskly again. "Nothing has changed," he said firmly. "Atsushi is still evil and a threat to all that I hold dear. I cannot allow him to complete his plans." _

"_But, Ishida-kun…" _

"_No," he said resolutely. "It doesn't matter if he had a hand in the creation of the Quincy or not. Even if he did, he obviously didn't have a hand in whom we became. He is without honor or pride and so he is of no concern to me." _

_Inoue couldn't help but smile slightly at his words. That was the Ishida-kun that she was used to. Someone that knew who he was and what he believed in no matter what the circumstances that surround him._

XXX

That conversation seemed so long ago now as Inoue walked up the passageway by herself. She felt a chill and pulled Urahara's too large cloak a bit tighter around her shoulders, hoping that he and the others were alright.

Part of her knew that she probably should just wait for Ishida to find her. She knew that her abilities were not up to the same level as Ishida and all of the others. Sure, she was useful, and she was proving herself a little more at every encounter, but she wouldn't stand a chance against someone on the level that the others had fought before. She had already nearly been killed by the one that controlled water and would have been had it not been for Kurosaki-kun. But still, she couldn't help but feel a kind of resentment for always being the one shoved in the background. She hated how she was always the one that they needed to protect and how they were always all so concerned for her safety even above their own.

They didn't seem to realize how badly it made her feel that they would keep getting hurt in order to protect her. And it was always her job to patch them back up. For once she wanted to stand up for herself and face the consequences on her own.

"I can stand on my own," she muttered out loud just as she came to the lip of the slope and looked out into the dark room in front of her.

XXX

Meanwhile, Chad, Ichigo, and Urahara were stopped at another similar juncture. "It looks like the one at the entrance," Chad said as he eyed the passage way.

"Hmm, yes. I suppose we should probably leave it for now," Urahara said also looking it over.

"Che," Ichigo muttered as he walked forward. "This is a waste of time," he said. "We know this is a trap so why are we being so cautious? Why not just spring it and get this over with?" he was only two steps away from the hallway now.

"Ichigo! Don't!" Urahara called out as he suddenly felt a shift in the spirit particles around them. But his warning was directed at the wrong person. Just as Ichigo was about to step over the threshold, the ground beneath his feet flexed upward, knocking him backward and to the floor. At the same time, the floor behind Chad rippled, shoving him forward and into the passageway.  
>Urahara realized this a second too late as he tried to reach out and grab Chad, but the large teen was pulled out of reached and then separated from them as a wall came crashing down from the ceiling above.<p>

"Chad!" Ichigo cried out as he jumped up and pulled Zangetsu from his back. He charged at the wall, pulling his swing back and saying, "Getsuga..."

"Ichigo!" Urahara yelled at him as he dashed forward and grabbed Ichigo's arm.

Ichigo gasped at him and turned an accusing glare at the ex-Shinigami. "What the hell?!" he yelled. "Chad's back there!"

"I know," Urahara told him calmly as he released his grip on Ichigo. "And I also know that even you are not going to be able to destroy that wall, Kurosaki-san. You would only waste your energy that could be better spent elsewhere."

Ichigo turned then and ran up to the wall, hitting it with his hand, "Chad! Oi! Chad!" he screamed.

"He's not there anymore, Ichigo," Urahara sighed. "He was pulled further away. I can't sense him anymore."

"What!?" Ichigo screamed as he whirled around to face Urahara. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?!"

"It means that standing here yelling at a blank wall or arguing with each other is going to get us nowhere. We have got to move on. Hopefully we can find another similar passageway that can link us back up with our missing friend."

Ichigo had to visibly get himself under control before he nodded and returned his Zanpakuto to his back. "Let's go then," he said before he turned and took off down the hall in the direction that they had been traveling.

Urahara paused another moment and glanced back the way they had come and then sighed as he shook his head, "So, the trap is about to close, is it?" he muttered before turning and following after Ichigo.

XXX

Ishida raced down the corridor that he had just been walking along. He had to hurry, Inoue was going to go and do something rash if he didn't get to her in time. He had known from the start that this was a trap, but it was a trap meant for him. That meant that to be separated from him, Inoue would be in far more danger. If Atsushi was after the last of the Quincy, then he would have no problem eliminating anyone else. The only reason that the Hells Wills were held back before was because Ishida was with the group.

Now he wasn't there to shield her as he was meant to do and she didn't seem to understand that. She was going to proceed on her own without any thought as to what that would mean. She wasn't a fighter. It was true she had been getting stronger and much more confident in herself and her abilities, but they weren't suited to work alone. She was meant to work with others.

_Please don't overdo it, Inoue-san,_ Ishida thought as he arrived back where he had started. He stared up the sloping hallway that he had avoided at the start. He knew there was something up there waiting for him. He could just sense a presence at the edge of his mind. It was waiting there, just for him.

_I'll have to make this fast,_ he thought to himself as he squared his shoulders and adjusted his glasses before dashing forward into the darkened hallway. As soon as he left the outer path, he heard the same wall slide down in place behind him that had separated him from Inoue but he didn't bother to look back. He had suspected that that would happen and didn't need to confirm it with his eyes. His course was set now and there would have been no turning back anyway.

As he ran up the slope, he noticed a slight warm breeze would filter down to him. It was very subtle, but it indicated to him exactly what he was about to meet when he reached the end of this path.

Suddenly, he crossed over the lip of the slope into a leveled out room. It was huge and cavernous. It was bright, nearly blinding him after the run in the darkened passageway. The walls were all white and the floor, though level, had platforms of varying heights all around that were covered in a layer of sand.

A warm breeze rushed at him then as the sand was picked up and swirled around on a nearby platform to his right. The breeze died down almost as soon as it had started, allowing the sand to settle and reveal a familiar figure standing there.

"I thought you were trying to avoid me, Quincy," the red haired, white eyed man said as he regarded Ishida.

"I was left without a choice, Barbarossa," Ishida replied cooly while he brought his arm out and summoned his bow. "I'm afraid I don't have time to waste with you right now. I am going to have to finish this quickly and move on."

"Because your girlfriend is in trouble?" Barbarossa said with a slight knowing smile.

Ishida glared back at him and asked, "What do you know of Inoue-san?"

Barbarossa shrugged, "Just that she was heading towards Goethe's room. If you don't hurry, she'll be dead quite soon."

Ishida ground his teeth in an effort to show no emotion at this as he brought his bow to bear on Barbarossa.

"The way there is through that hallway if you plan on going to her," the man continued as if there had been no change. He nodded to a doorway far across the room from where Ishida had entered. "Though I doubt you will be leaving this place anytime soon."

"I don't plan on remaining here long," Ishida told him before suddenly vanishing from Barbarossa's sight. He was on the other side of the man and firing an arrow before Barbarossa even turned around. Still, the arrow was knocked off course by a gust of wind.

"Didn't we already have this fight?" Barbarossa said, still not bothering to turn around. "I believe I told you that your arrows can't work against one that uses the air." He finally turned around and faced Ishida.

But it was then that the man realized his mistake. Ishida wasn't planning on fighting him. He had fired the shot and took off for the hallway that Barbarossa had indicated. "Nice try, Quincy, but I don't think so," he said before vanishing and then suddenly reappearing at the threshold to the hallway, baring Ishida's exit.

The Quincy came to a halt and regarded the wind user again. "I take it that you won't let me pass until I've defeated you again," he said.

"Again? I may have withdrawn before, but that was not a defeat. What you don't seem to realize, Quincy, is that here I am even more powerful than in the world of the living. There is little, if anything, that you are going to be able to use against me."

The wind suddenly began to pick up and started to draw the sharp gains of sand with it. Ishida was forced to raise a hand to protect his face from the sand blasting as it was swirling around him. He lost sight of his opponent then so was completely caught off guard when he felt a blade slice the back of his hand.

The droplets of blood that were drawn were caught up in the wind and mixed with the sand as it continued to surround him.

"You will not escape this place, Quincy," he heard Barbarossa's voice speak above the howl of the wind as if it had been spoken directly into his ear. "If you cannot defeat me, then you will die here."

XXX

At first, Chad had no idea what it was that was happening when he suddenly felt as if he tripped forward. It was the sound of the wall sliding shut behind him that he realized that it wasn't an accident. It was the ground below him clamping onto his ankles and dragging him up the sloped passageway that gave him his biggest hint as to what was going on.

After only a moment, he reacted fast enough to transform his right arm and smash the stone that was around his ankles, stopping his forward motion suddenly. He tripped forward again, but he managed to steady himself and keep from falling face first into the floor.

He glanced ahead and could only make out a continuation of the dim hallway. It was more of the same behind him, but he remembered the sound of the wall closing him in so there was no going back at this point. "No choice then," he muttered to himself as he began to walk up the slope on his own power.

As he neared the end of the passage, he could see a warm sun like light ahead. He stepped out onto what appeared to be a grassy plain. He could make out the edges of walls in the distance that were a rich green color but he could see no discernable light source for the very sun like glow around him. Looking up the ceiling was far above, painted a very realistic sky blue while the floor all around him resembled a rolling plain, covered in ankle to knee high grass.

"I am sorry for forcing you to this meeting," a voice said off to his left.

Chad looked and was unsurprised to see Jan Zizka standing on a nearby hillock. "I find it dishonorable to force such a confrontation, but I cannot disobey my orders," the one eyed man continued.

"You are supposed to kill me then?" Chad asked as he turned to face the man.

Zizka blinked his single green eye once and then nodded, "If I am able to, yes. I am not permitted to retreat or hold back this time, though I hate to fight against someone who has no chance of winning."

"We will see," Chad replied evenly, bringing his arm out and preparing to defend himself.

Zizka nodded again and said, "Yes, we shall see," just before the ground around him erupted and rushed outward towards Chad.

XXX

There, stretching before Inoue, was a large flat expanse. The lighting was very dim and had an eerie iridescent glow to it. Pillars littered the floor at seemingly random placement that made no sense either in style or architecture. The pillars reached high into the air, further than the dim light would reach so that Inoue had no idea how high the ceiling was from her. The floor looked to be made from black marble but reflected none of the strange light that hit it. It was as if the floor was devouring the light like a black hole.

"Sie sollte nicht hier sein," a voice echoed from somewhere in the large room.

Inoue froze and looked around the vast room, searching for the one that had spoken. She didn't know what it was that had been said to her, but she did think that she recognized the language as German.

"Hello?" she called tentatively as her right hand slowly rose to touch the side of her head where one of her hairclips rested. "I'm sorry. I don't understand."

"Leave," the voice said, heavily accented. Inoue was able to pinpoint the location of the voice this time and quickly turned to face towards her right just as a man stepped out from behind a pillar in that direction.

"I…I'm sorry," she stuttered to him as she took a step backward from him while bringing up her other hand to her other hairclip. "But I can't. The way back was blocked."

He stood there, staring at her for a moment. She felt uneasy as she realized that she was looking into two black orbs where his eyes should have been. She had only caught a glimpse of this man before back in the hospital, but she was certain that this was the man that Atsushi had called Goethe.

"Goethe?" she asked quietly as she slowly lowered her hands.

The man seemed surprised that she knew his name and he took a step backward. "Who are you?" he muttered in confusion.

Inoue took a breath to steady her nerves. This man hadn't seemed threatening before or now, just being commanded by Atsushi. Maybe he wouldn't attack her if not commanded to. "Inoue Orihime," she said to him. "You're Johann Goethe, right?" she asked again, gaining some small amount of confidence now.

"You… leave…" He told her, clearly struggling with the language. "Der Elrkönig…"

Suddenly a loud booming voice echoed through the cavernous room, causing Inoue to crouch down and cover her ears. "She is an enemy," the voice called. "Kill her, Goethe. Do as you have been commanded!"

Goethe cringed slightly as he slowly turned to face Inoue directly. "Ja, mein Koenig," he said softly as he directed his gaze towards the floor.

Inoue stood up quickly and brought her hands from her ears to her hairpins again. "You don't have to do this," she told him as she realized that he didn't want to obey what the voice had just told him to do.

"Das tut mir leid," the man said to her as he raised his eyes from the floor and looked at her.

Inoue felt a chill run down her spine as he slowly raised his right hand and faced his palm towards her. With a yellow flash, she called all six of her helping fairies out and set them to spin about her, preparing to use them as soon as she knew what was going to be thrown at her.

It was the yellow light that they created around her that gave her the only warning that she had that an attack was already coming. The flicker of yellow reflected for a moment in a swirl of black that seemed to have risen from the floor itself directly in front of her. Because the floor did not reflect the light of the room, she hadn't even noticed that there had been a change.

Now, she was just able to make out the blackness rising up in front of her just in time to bring her shield up between it and herself as it tried to swallow her. The shield was pushed into her, knocking her back. She gasped in surprised, barley able to keep from falling over but just managing to keep her feet as she staggered.

"Was ist das?" Goethe asked as he stepped closer to her while eying the shield that had deflected his attack.

"I don't know what you are saying," Inoue told him as she turned and squared off to him. "But I will not be pushed down by you."

Goethe stared at her a moment before adjusting his gaze to the little creatures that were flashing around her head once again. "I never see before," he said to her. "Stops my attack? How?"

"I don't know," she told him. "I don't know what it is that you do. But my Santen Kesshun repels whatever it encounters."

Goethe eyed the barrier that was still between the girl and himself for a moment. "Negates," he said after a moment. "I see." He switched his vision to looking at Inoue rather than her shield and said, "I negate also. The black…" he said as another tendril of the same black substance lifted from the floor in front of the shield, "Negates color… It negates… life by making it… simple."

"Simple?" she asked. She thought about this for a moment before she gasped, "You mean breaks it down to atoms?!"

He shook his head. "Nein. Takes away... the spirit… When that is gone, whatever it touches, vanishes from sight. Color, light, spirit… all connected. Take one away, it all breaks apart."

Inoue gulped back her fear as she took another step backward. "You mean the spirit particles?" she half whispered. If that was true, what might it do to Tsubaki if she sent him in to attack? Could it destroy her shield? How could she fight something like this?"

"Goethe, why are you doing this?" she asked him as he started to take a step towards her. He paused in mid-step and tipped his head to the side as if considering her question.

"No choice. Mein choice taken away long ago."

Inoue suddenly felt very sad for him. Atsushi was using him and had somehow managed to circumvent his own will. She didn't know the circumstances or how this was accomplished, but she was sure that Goethe did not want to follow Atsushi's will.

"You have a choice," she told him softly. "We all have a choice in what we do."

He shook his head sadly. "Nein. This is mein fate," he said.

Inoue felt, more than saw, the attack that was coming behind her. She gasped as she jumped to the side, spinning her shield to place between the new attack and her. But this left her open to the tendrils that had been in front of her a moment ago.

"Tschüß, Mädchen," he sad sadly to her as the wisp of black coiled toward her, preparing to wrap around her throat.

_A/N:_

_Translations-_

Sie sollte nicht hier sein- You should not be here

Der Elrkönig- The Elf King

Ja, mein Koenig- Yes, my king

Das tut mir leid- I'm sorry

Was ist das- What is that?

Mein- my

Nein- no

Tschüß, Mädchen- Goodbye, girl


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: Phew! This was a close one. I nearly didn't get this one finished in time for my deadline. As such, please keep an eye out for mistakes since it when through far less read throughs than my chapters normally get before posting.

As always, thank you all once again for your reviews. If anyone missed it, thanks to Aurora Marija point out a little wonkiness that I had at the end of the last chapter, I have edited it and reposted. If you haven't read the edited version, I would suggest going back and reading the last section of the previous chapter as I did change a little bit of how Goethe's power works as well as add in translations for his German.

I believe that is all that I need to say this time before beginning. So, without further ado…

Chapter 23

Ichigo and Urahara raced down the hallway, searching for another passage to try and reconnect with Chad. Urahara would glance at the Substitute Shinigami from time to time and see the deep furrows of worry on his face. The shop keeper already knew that all three of their other companions were currently engaged in some kind of battle. He had sensed all of their reiatsu flare up one after another. What worried him more was that he could sense that Ishida and Inoue were not in the same location. They must have become separated; probably in much the same way that they had become separated from Sado.

Urahara wondered how much of this Ichigo was able to sense. He didn't want to alarm the young man anymore than he already was if he wasn't aware of these details so he didn't say anything. Still, he knew that something similar probably was awaiting the two of them.

It wasn't long before this became quite apparent as they came to a sudden stop at the next juncture. There was an identical upward sloped passage off of their hallway where they had currently stopped. "I hope this leads to Chad," Ichigo said as he turned to head up the passage.

"Wait, Ichigo," Urahara said softly, causing the young man to pause and glance back at Urahara.

The shop keeper walked forward until he was standing just outside of the entrance way. "What is it?" Ichigo asked as Urahara stared up the passage.

Urahara didn't respond for a second. He continued to stare into the dim hallway before he sighed and placed a hand on top of his hat. "You should continue on, Kurosaki-san," he said softly as he looked at the floor.

"What?!" Ichigo exclaimed. "Chad needs us now! We don't have time to keep wandering around here!" he took a step towards Urahara but was suddenly brought to a stop as a cane was held out in his path.

"This is my path, Kurosaki-san," he said firmly, still without turning around to face Ichigo. "You keep moving on to the next one. I'm sure there will be another."

"Ura…" but it was then that Urahara stepped forward and crossed the threshold of the hallway. No sooner was he on the other side then a wall slid down from the ceiling above, cutting him off from Ichigo just like what had happened to Chad at the last Juncture.

"Urahara!" Ichigo screamed as he tried to beat the wall but he was a second too late. He was stopped just short of reaching his mentor by the blockade. "Damn it!" he screamed as he slammed his fist into the wall.

"This is where we part for now, Kurosaki-san," Ichigo heard Urahara's muffled voice from the other side. "We'll meet again soon, but there is something that I must take care of here. Hurry on so that you can help the others after you take care of your part."

"What? What are you talking about?!" Ichigo screamed.

"Good luck, Ichigo," Urahara called back to him.

"Oi! Urahara! Hey, Urahara!" Ichigo screamed but there was no response. "Damn it!" he yelled again as he gave one final punch into the wall.

He heaved a sigh and slumped against the wall, propping his arm against the surface as he leaned his forehead onto it. "How am I supposed to protect everyone when we're all separated?" he muttered to himself.

He stood like that for another few seconds before he clenched his fist and push off from the wall. "I'll just have to hurry on and meet them all," he said with determination before turning and switched to shunpo to propel him onward. _That man better know what he's doing,_ he thought to himself as he rushed along the passage hoping that he wouldn't be too slow to make sure that all of his friends were okay.

XXX

Urahara had waited on the other side of the wall listening to Ichigo yell at him. It wasn't until the other had left and moved on did Urahara sigh once again and start walking up the corridor. He knew that Ichigo was going to be upset with him for purposefully separating but the presence that he sensed ahead was not someone he wanted the substitute to face. This had been his fight from the beginning and he was the one that should end it.

It didn't take Urahara long before he could see a flickering orange glow ahead and feel a warm air rushing to meet him. He hurried his pace and was soon standing at the edge of the entrance into a massive room.

Spread out before him was what appeared to be an open plain. Dry, parched grass stood in scattered patches around the mostly dirt and mud filled room. Down the center of the room was what looked like a river, only it was steaming and hissing from flames that would flicker in and out of existence around the whole area. The steam hovered in the air, creating a light fog. All around this expanse, orange and red flames ringed it in, curiously never catching the patches of grass on fire.

"Welcome," a voice said further inside the room. Urahara couldn't see the speaker but knew who it was anyway.

"This is quite a room you have here, Otto-san."

"Do you like it?" the voice asked.

"I do. Lechfeld, isn't it?" he asked as he started to walk further into the room. As he moved, he could feel a curtain of heated flames descend behind him, cutting off the exit.

There was a slight pause before the voice replied, "So, you know who I was and about my history then? I am impressed."

"Of course, Emperor Otto the first," Urahara said, still scanning the fog filled plain for the speaker. "Also known as Otto the Great, first of the Holy Roman Emperors. And this was the battlefield that earned you that title, was it not?"

"It was," the voice replied. As he spoke, a slight blush of flame burned away a veil of fog to Urahara's left, revealing Otto standing at the edge of the river bank. "This is where I first met Lord Atsushi as well," he said with a grin.

Urahara regarded him a moment before he said, "I have to say, that does rather surprise me. I had assumed that he came and collected your soul at your death."

Otto shrugged and said, "For the others, that may be true. And it is, to an extent for me as well. But it was on this field that I handed the right to my soul over to him. You see, if it wasn't for his tactical advice, I never would have beaten the Slavs on this field."

"Ah, I see," Urahara said as he lowered his cane from his arm and planted in on the ground before leaning on it. "So this is where you gained your power." He glanced around the room as if he was simply taking it in. "Though, I don't understand the flames," he said. He looked at Otto again saying, "Why fire?"

"Because," Otto said with a wicked grin. "Lord Atsushi said I would burn the world around me to make it my own and I did. That is the true power that he granted me on that day but I didn't know it until I had died years later."

Urahara lowered his head and rested a hand on top of his hat as he spoke, "No, Otto-san, I am afraid that is not quite true. Otto the Great died in 973. I can't say where his soul would have gone at that point, whether to Hell or Soul Society, but when Atsushi took it, he perverted it." He looked up then at the man standing in front of him. "He twisted your soul and created a weapon that he could wield. You are no longer the emperor, in charge of your own life with your own power, you are nothing more than a tool now, and serving beneath one that would pretend to rule."

Though there was no change of expression on Otto's face at this, Urahara could easily tell that his words were getting to him. The temperature in the air rose a few degrees as the fire around the edges became slightly higher and brighter. The water bubbled a little more, sending up another gush of steam into the air.

"What does it matter?" Otto finally said in a low, dangerous voice. "I may work under Lord Atsushi now, but clearly I am remembered for what I did back in the world of the living. Otto the Great is immortal now because I agreed to serve under Lord Atsushi." The volume in his voice rose in increments as he started to slowly walk towards Urahara. "And now I wield more power than I could even imagine when I was him. So tell me, what does it matter if I am no longer that feeble man? I am nearly a god here and my name will live on forever out there!"

As he said "There!" he swiped his hand through the air, beckoning to the wall of flames to his right. He pulled his arm back towards himself then, pulling a line of flame from the wall to himself. In a second, he clutched what appeared to be a pole of flame in his right hand. It flashed brilliantly for a moment before it suddenly stopped flaming and Urahara could see that he was holding an ordinary looking lance in his hand.

"The Holy Lance," Urahara said as he stared at this object with no small amount of wonder and desire.

"Yes, though I have no idea if it was the original. That no longer matters either. My enemies thought it was and so it served its purpose."

"Thus imbuing it with their fear and awe," Urahara said with a nod. "It may have been a simple spear before, but displaying it as you did on that battle field has transformed it."

"You have a good understanding of these things I see," Otto said with a nod of his head. "It is a shame that I must kill you now. But, I can't say that I won't enjoy this. No one has been able to touch me ever since I joined Atsushi, not even my fellow brothers. But you, you managed to wound me. I can't wait to finish this battle finally."

"So you have been told to kill me?" Urahara asked while slowly drawing his blade from his cane.

"I have been told that it will either be you or me that leaves this room. But you can be assured that it will not be you."

"Interesting," was all that Urahara said before he suddenly leapt out of the path of a fireball that had come at him from the wall behind. He flash stepped then to appear on Otto's right, aiming a sword strike at his neck. He was slightly surprised to find his strike stopped by the lance.

"The lance protects me," Otto said with another grin over their crossed weapons. "You thought that I couldn't move with the same speed as you, and you are correct. But the lance can."

The shopper keeper looked down then and realized that the former emperor wasn't even holding the lance. It had simply left his hands on its own to intercept the attack.

"Will you be remembered after this, Shinigami?" Otto asked softly as a ball of fire blazed to life in his hand only inches away from Urahara's chest.

XXX

_Inoue felt, more than saw, the attack that was coming behind her. She gasped as she jumped to the side, spinning her shield to place between the new attack and her. But this left her open to the tendrils that had been in front of her a moment ago._

"_Tschüß__, Mädchen," __he sad sadly to her as the wisp of black coiled toward her, preparing to wrap around her throat._

Not knowing what else to do, she raised her right arm in front of her to try and ward off the tendrils of black. She knew that it was pointless given that anything it touched would be broken apart but it was the only reaction she could make at a time like that.

She felt a sharp snap as a flash of green flared on her arm where the contact was made. The tendril vanished with the flash as she was knocked backward into her own shield with a slight push of energy.

Gasping, she stumbled a second before she found her balance again. Staring down at her arm, she was surprised to see only a small portion of the sleeve of Urahara's cloak that she still wore smoking slightly, other than that there appeared to be no damage to her.

"*Was?" Goethe asked as he stared in confusion at the smoking sleeve.

Inoue shook her head slightly as she also continued to stare. "Urahara-san… he must have done something to the cloak…" she looked up then and met Goethe's eyes. "Apparently you're ability can be countered," she told him with some level of confidence to her voice that she wasn't quite feeling yet. Her insides were still shaken from what had just happened. She very nearly was killed there and would have been if Urahara hadn't insisted that she take his coat. She was glad now that he had done so, but, if he came across something similar, he would be defenseless without it. She was certainly going to have to survive this so she could return it to him soon.

"Das Mantel," Goethe said after a moment. "It resists breaking. But not forever," he said with a nod to the sleeve. Inoue glanced down again and saw that where it had been smoking there was now a frayed area. So, one, maybe two touches were all that the cloak could protect.

She looked up at Goethe again and glared at him with as much conviction and determination as she could muster. "Then I will have to defeat you before that." She brought her hands to her hair clips again and whispered, "Tsubaki," summoning her attack fairy to hover in front of her. "Please," she addressed Goethe who was still eyeing her. "I know you don't want to do this. I don't want to either, but if you continue to attack me I will have no choice."

Goethe eyed Tsubaki for a moment more before he said, "Dein will controls this, yes? Is it strong enough to reach me?"

Inoue nodded once sharply. "It is. I must move on from here. All my friends are counting on me."

"Und I must kill you…" Goethe said with a shake of his head. "No other choice." He raised his hands out, palms facing up. As he did this, Inoue could see a swirl of iridescent colors in his eyes while more wisps and tendrils of the same black substance rose from the floor, surrounding her.

Glancing around her, Inoue knew that she couldn't depend on Urahara's cloak to protect her from this attack. There was no telling if the protection would continue where the cloak didn't cover and it looked as though Goethe was going to try and smother her with this attack. She needed something else to protect herself. She wasn't as fast as the others without either Shinigami Shunpo or the Quincy Hirenkyaku so she wasn't going to be able to dodge the attack. But her shield only protected her from one direction. It was true that she had learned how to curve it so that it would wrap around her slightly, but it was only three points, she couldn't extend it all the way around… could she?

As she had this thought, the blackness around her suddenly billowed outward to form a solid cylinder around her, blocking out her view of Goethe. She let out a slight surprised cry as the cylinder immediately constricted towards her.

Goethe stood on the outside of the cage he had just created and sighed as he directed it to collapse in on her. As he did this, he took a step backward and was about to turn away, not wishing to witness what was about to happen to the girl. But he then realized that the prison was not in the form of the girl as he had expected. Normally when he covered an object in with his attack, it would hold form for a moment before breaking down but the cylinder had only collapsed partially. There was now a cone shape of blackness sitting on the floor in front of him.

With a wave of his hand, Goethe dismissed the blackness away, revealing a perfect cone shaped shell of yellow light that the black had been coating.

Inoue stood in the center, staring up at Goethe with surprise on her own face.

"Impressive," Goethe muttered. "Even covered, you can block… strange."

Inoue gulped down the sudden rush of fear that she had just experienced and then nodded. Looking down, she could see that her normal three pointed shield was now in two halves with the fairies forming a perfect triangle over her and bending the shield into a cone around her body.

"I didn't know if that would work, but I can block you now, Goethe," she told him. "And…" she nodded to Tsubaki, who was still hovering in front of her, under the shield. He flashed downward just as the cone floated upward slightly. With a flash, Tsubaki zipped down and under the shield before it settled back down around Inoue. A trail of yellow light blazed across the space between Inoue and Goethe.

The German let out a grunt of pain as the attack streaked by him, slicing into his right arm and drawing a slight spray of blood.

"…I can still attack you like this," Inoue completed as she had Tsubaki spin around in the air and return to hover just outside of her shield. "Please, stand aside, Goethe," she begged again. "I don't want to hurt you anymore."

He looked up at her again and sighed. "I cannot. _He_ will know." He gestured with his hands again, calling more of the blackness from the floor around Inoue.

"But you can't touch me, Goethe," she told him sadly. "I will only end up hurting you."

With a wave of one hand, the black began to spiral around Inoue. He waved his other hand then and brought it towards his own body. A trail of black broke off from the vortex and came to spin around his body as well.

Inoue sighed sadly. She was confident now that her shield would be able to protect her but if Goethe wouldn't back down, she was going to have to make him. This was her new resolve. Tsubaki had once chastised her for sending him in without resolve to harm. She still hated it, but she knew now that there was no other choice. Goethe was not going to let her pass and the others would be counting on her to neutralize this threat. If she was ever going to prove to them that she was worthy enough to fight alongside them she was going to have to have that resolve now.

"I am sorry, Goethe," she said sadly just before launching Tsubaki straight at him. The fairy flashed through the small gaps in the vortex that swirled around her and shot for the former poet and scientist like a blazing arrow. Just before he hit, however, the vortex around Goethe suddenly became a solid wall, blocking the man from sight entirely. Tsubaki struck the wall and came to a sudden halt. Inoue gasped as she watched yellow sparks fly into the air where her attacker fairy was still trying to burrow through the wall, but no matter how much resolve she poured into her attack, he could not seem to affect blackness.

With a swipe of her hand, Tsubaki suddenly shot up and then tried to dive down over the wall. But, as she lost sight of Tsubaki, she realized that Goethe was no longer on the other side of the wall because he was now stepping out of a gap in reality just to her left.

She spun around, directing Tsubaki back towards her. But Goethe was already reaching out a hand for her.

He let out a cry of pain as his hand connected with the shield that was still surrounding Inoue. "Repels more than energy…" he muttered while pulling his hand away and then took a step back before vanishing from sight in another swirl of blackness just as Tsubaki had reached his new location.

Inoue stood in the center of her shield looking around the dark room. There was no sign of the man anywhere. "Goethe?" she asked softly.

She stood there for a while longer, not receiving a response and still seeing nothing. She looked around again and saw that there was another passageway across the room from her. Warily, she started to move towards it, hoping that maybe Goethe had decided that since he couldn't reach her, he must have left.

But, as soon as she took a step, she realized her mistake. She hadn't noticed that just beyond the perimeter of her shield, a very slight wisp of black had hovered on the floor. When she stepped, moving her shield with her, she allowed it to enter the protected area.

With a gasp, she jumped backward when it shot up towards her under the rim of her shield. As she did this, the cloak that was far too large for her, billowed outward, intercepting the black tendril. There was another snap and backwash of energy that brought a cry of pain from Inoue as it burned the skin on her legs but the attack itself was neutralized by contact with the cloak.

She crumpled to one knee as she wrapped her hands around the burn on her right leg and stared out around her, searching for the man that had just attacked her. She still didn't see anyone. The hem of the coat that had connected with the attack was smoking again and she could see that the fabric was starting to crumble away in a much larger area than where it had touched the sleeve a moment ago.

As she knelt on the floor she noticed that the floor all around outside of her shield was a swirling misty mass off more of the black substance that Goethe used to attack. She couldn't take a single step without risking it reaching her again.

"You cannot leave and you cannot find me to attack," Goethe's voice echoed through the room.

Inoue looked around, trying to pinpoint where the voice was coming from but the echoes made it too difficult.

"You must see me to attack, Mädchen. If you cannot see, then you cannot attack."

"You can't reach me either, Goethe," Inoue called out into the room. "Not while I hold up my shield."

"You cannot leave, either," his voice said back softly. "If I cannot kill, maybe Der Elrkönig will accept this."

"A standstill," Inoue muttered as she slowly stood up again, wincing slightly from the sting of the burn on her leg.

"Wir sind an einem Stillstand," the voice agreed with her.

XXX

"_You are supposed to kill me then?" Chad asked as he turned to face the man._

_Zizka blinked his single green eye once and then nodded, "If I am able to, yes. I am not permitted to retreat or hold back this time, though I hate to fight against someone who has no chance of winning."_

"_We will see," Chad replied evenly, bringing his arm out and preparing to defend himself._

_Zizka nodded again and said, "Yes, we shall see," just before the ground around him erupted and rushed outward towards Chad._

Throwing his shielded right arm up to block, Chad leaped backward and tried to avoid the cascade of dirt, rock and debris. He managed to not be in the direct path but was still pelted with fragments of earth. When the air had cleared, he lowered his arm, revealing that he had taken a scrap across his forehead before he had brought up his arm. His legs also were obviously hit as material of his jeans was torn in several places revealing several bloody scrapes and gashes.

"You still dodge well," Zizka complimented as he turned to face Chad's new location. "But, as before, you will not be able to dodge forever and no one else is coming to help you this time."

"There is no need," Chad replied. He clenched his right fist in front of him for a second as he held his left arm out and allowed it to transform as well before he suddenly took off running at Zizka.

The one eyed man looked impressed by this as he watched Chad advance on him. Chad brought his left arm back in preparation to punch Zizka, but the split second before he brought his fist forward, Zizka stepped backward and disappeared through a portal.

Chad came to a halt but he was already spinning around just as Zizka suddenly stepped out from a portal behind the teen. There was a startled look on Zizka's face when, instead of taking Chad by surprise, his own punch was met by the shield of Chad's right arm.

"How did you know?" Zizka asked.

"This is how you fight," Chad replied as he hefted his arm forward, shoving Zizka back a few steps. "It was easy to guess that you would come from behind when you disappeared."

"I see," Zizka replied as he seemed to be contemplating something. "It has been a long time since I have had to fight. I guess I started to rely on my new abilities a little too much. My apologies. It isn't very honorable or sporting to attack from behind. And now, since you know of this tactic, it is useless anyway."

He took another step back then and held his arms straight out from his sides. "Attack me if you wish, I won't use that trick to avoid you again." The earth around him rumbled as he slowly closed his fists. "That is, if you can reach me again."

Two circles of rock and then detached from the ground below his fists and rose up into the air. Drawing his hands in front of him, Zizka caused the chunks to float forward as well. Once there, he suddenly opened both of his hands and shoved his palms towards Chad.

The rocks instantly disintegrated into sharp pellets and were propelled forward towards the teen like buckshot. Chad once again brought his shield arm up to block as he dodged out of the way. He took a few more hits but managed to miss the majority of the attack. He turned his dodge into a charge but Zizka drew a large wall of rock up in between them.

There was another wall flying at Chad from the direction that Zizka had expected Chad to dodge around the first. But he was taken by surprise when the wall he had used to block Chad's path was suddenly pulverized from one of his punches and the teen was once again approaching him.

Zizka jumped backward as Chad's white and red arm made a swing at him. The fist passed through empty space but no more than a breath away from Zizka. The man reached out, however, as the arm passed in front of him and grabbed it between his hands. He clenched onto Chad's arm and pulled at him in the direction of the swing, turning Chad's own momentum against him.

He lifted the teen off the ground spun him around once before releasing, sending him soaring through the air. Chad spun in flight so that he impacted the ground with his feet but the force was still enough to disorient him.

No sooner than his feet were on the ground than a large chunk of the earth shot up under him, sending him soaring back into the air. This time he didn't have the time to reorient himself before he suddenly crashed into a column of rock that Zizka had just drew up from the ground in his path.

The column crumbled to rubble with the impact as Chad fell to the ground in a heap.

"You fight very well," Zizka once again complimented as he approached Chad as the teen struggled to stand again and maneuver out of the pile of rubble that he was now partially buried in. "But it is not enough, I am afraid."

Chad opened his right hand on instinct then and caught the spike of earth that was propelled at him from the right. He crushed the tip of the spike in his hand and used it to help himself stand. But another spike was thrown up at him from the other side. He twisted just enough that it didn't pierce his chest as it was intended, but it did rake across his side, leaving a deep and bloody gash across the left side of his torso.

Zizka drew up two more chunks of earth in front of him and sent it like shot again at Chad, expecting that the last blow would leave him too disoriented to be able to dodge this time. But Chad clenched his right hand and slammed it into the ground calling, "El Directo," as he did so.

A rush of rocks and debris was churned up in the explosion that resulted from that punch. It effectively blocked all of the rocks that Zizka had just attacked with while obscuring the man's vision.

With a surprised gasp, Zizka suddenly turned and just barely managed to catch Chad's left hand in his own right. "This is your attack, isn't it?" Zizka said as he drew his own left hand upward. A column of rock erupted beneath Chad's arm. He tried to pull his arm back to avoid the rock, but Zizka held his fist firmly in place.

The rock smashed into his arm with so much force, Chad could hear the shell of the armor on that arm crack.

Zizka released his hold then and sighed as he took a step backward. "I am sorry for having to break your attacking arm, but I need you to see that this is pointless."

Chad looked down at his arm and saw that the shell was indeed cracked but he could still move it. This brought a startled gasp from Zizka. "I heard it break," he said as he watched Chad move his arm without any difficulty.

"Just the armor cracked," Chad replied as he showed the spider's web pattern of cracking that had appeared where the rock had impacted him. "It is very hard to break my bones, especially when I have my armor activated," he explained. With a nod to his arm then, the armor liquefied a moment and then solidified again without any evidence of cracking.

"I still have underestimated you, it seems," Zizka replied. "I apologize for that. This will be it then." He closed his eyes a moment. Chad didn't want to know what the man had in store now so he started to rush at him. He had his left fist open as blue energy started to crackle on each of his fingers. He was almost to Zizka as he began to close his fist. He drew it back just as Zizka opened his eyes again. "La Mu…" he began to say.

But that was all the further he got before the ground around him seemed to drop away, sending him down into a pit. He looked up as he fell and saw giant rocks following him down, cutting off the light from above. He was plunged into darkness just as he hit the bottom and would only have to wait a second before those rocks caught up with him, burying him alive.

A/N:

*_German translation_:

Was- what?

Das Mantel- that coat

Dein- your

Und- and

Mächen- girl

Der Erlkönig- the elfking

Wir sind an einem Stillstand- we are at a standstill.


End file.
